nooooo don't click in
by Shadowy Warrior
Summary: Just a story of my own. NOT FANFIC. dont want to bother others with it so i choose this quiet corner of fanfic. just dont click in. noooooooooooooooooo. yahhhhhhhh
1. Chapter 1

**THE** B **ANE OF** P **OWER**

 **THE** **U** **NICORNS OF** **D** **EATH**

 **Part** **1**

 **it's funny how day by day,**

 **nothing changes.**

 **but when you look back,**

 **everything is different.**

 **1**

Questilsa hated pineapples.

She didn't know why. She just hated it.

It was kinda funny. She wasn't afraid of giants. She wasn't afraid of trolls. Not globins. Not even pigeons which seemed all had the same hobby of pooping on Questilsa's head.

She just hated pineapple.

So when she found one at the ground of her doorframe, she scowled at it.

"I disapprove your existence, Pineapple," she told it.

So originally she was sprawling in the bed in her tiny apartment and spinning a wicked-looking knife in her hand in boredom.

This knife was her ten-year-old birthday present from her father. It was really wicked-looking. Like, the sort of mommy-that-shiny-sharpy- is-glaring-at-me-with-its-imaginary-eyes-I-am-dying sort of wicked-looking.

And when her doorbell rang, she was suspicious.

She was sure that she didn't order pizza. She had dumped her family when she was seven and hadn't seen them afterwards, so no chance of them visiting all in a sudden. She of course had friends, but most of her friends enjoyed killing her.

So she picked up her mommy-that-shiny-sharpy-is-glaring-at-me-with- its-imaginary-eyes-I-am-dying knife and walked towards the door. She was prepared for many weird things. A little girl screaming _trick-or-treat_ in an UnHalloweenFestival. Someone's corpse collapsing inside. A five-feet-long Scorpion happily trying to kill her by whipping its tail towards her neck. Or a vampire farting.

This had all happened before. The vampire farting one was actually the one that brought her the closest to death. Nobody warned her how horrible was a vampire's fart. It smelt like… well, vampire fart.

Back to the pineapple.

So when Questilsa opened the door, she saw the pineapple lying on the ground with a happy face drawn on it by a marker.

"I give you ten seconds to run, Pineapps," she told it. The pineapple stubbornly refused to answer.

She glanced around and sighed. "Come out, Zacks."

A girl seemed to appear from nowhere and was grinning at Questilsa with a mommy-that-shiny-sharpy-is-glaring-at-me-with-its-imaginary- eyes-I-am-dying sword-and-knife sheathed at her belt. Questilsa remembered giving her it the day she met her.

"Use it wisely," Questilsa had said.

"Did you send me this deadly weapon of Pineapple?" Questilsa now demanded.

The girl outside smiled. "You didn't attack it immediately. This is an improvement, my friend."

Questilsa glared at her.

"So are you letting me in, Pineapple Slayer?"

She sighed and moved. "Come on it. Did anything happen?"

The girl kicked the pineapple in and shut the door. Her laughing face melted and was immediately, though reluctantly, replaced by a serious one.

"There was a Shape-Shifter that I spot yesterday. It was with a girl and they went to Disney."

"Did the girl get eaten?"

"No. I killed it before it made a move on the girl. But it was strange. Shape-Shifter wouldn't go to Disney with its prey. It would kill its prey immediately after it located it."

"Is the girl human?"

"Definitely. But this wasn't the strangest part."

"Then?"

"I was Veiled when I killed it. But the girl saw me."

"She saw you?" Questilsa scowled. "Are you sure that you were Veiled?"

"If I weren't Veiled, I would be dragged to prison already. No. Nobody but the Shape-Shifter and the girl saw me. The Shape-Shifter was a Demon. If it didn't see me, I would be worried. But a human that saw me? That is the weird part."

"Are you sure that she saw you?"

"Yes. She watched me kill the Shape-S and she screamed. She looked at me in _eyes._ "

Questilsa fell silent. The other girl sat down on the bed and stared out of the window.

"Is she a Witch also? Did you see her arms?"

The other girl looked down at her own arms, which was tattooed with Runes. Her Rune of Speed was fading. It would take a few days before it returned.

"No. Her arm was clear. And she was already somewhere like thirteen or so. If she is a Witch, the Marks will already have came. And a Marked Witch wouldn't be stupid enough to hang out with a demon."

"Or blind enough," Questilsa bit her lip. "She cannot be an Elf, right?"

Her friend glared at her.

"Fine. Fine. It would be too obvious if she was an Elf. First, you have done the Follow-up, right? I don't want to mess things up."

"Yes. A Mist-man had taken the Shape-Shifter's place. Things are not messed up, but I am pretty sure that the girl's life is."

"Don't bother about that first. You followed her, right? Are you sure of where she lived?"

"A hundred percent sure," the girl nodded

"I wish I could go with you, but I am pretty tangled up with the Unicorns."

"Yeah, the Power One had pulled its strings tight. The demons are pretty close to finding it."

Questilsa patted her shoulder. "Write me a letter everyday and keep me updated. Two days without letters, and one of us is in trouble. Deal?"

"Is it a deal?"

"No. Stay here tonight. I have pretty much to fill you up with, too."

"As long as you cuddle the pineapple to sleep."

Questilsa rolled her eyes.

 _The little girl locked eyes with Janelle._

 _She was very young, about four or three years younger than Janelle. They were separated by the crowd in Disneyland, but Janlle couldn't peel her eyes away from the girl._

 _Something about the girl was wrong. There was something dark and dangerous about her. The girl herself looked shock, as if a lamb suddenly found itself surrounded by lions._

 _Beside Janelle, Max, her best friend, peeked over Janelle's shoulder. "Wha' ya lookin' at?"_

 _When he followed her gaze and saw the girl, he bolted._

 _The girl broke eye contact with Janelle and darted after Max. Something in her hand was shimmering in the dark. She threw it at Max._

 _The knife sailed past all the people and found its target. It hit Max's back squarely. Max didn't make a sound and simply disappeared. Janelle screamed._

 _The girl's head snapped to her, her second knife flashing out in her hand._

 _Janelle ducked behind the crowd, gasping. Max. Max. Did that girl kill him?_

" _What is it?" someone touched her back softly, "why did you scream? Someone pretended to be ghost and scared you again?"_

" _Can't… can't you see that? The girl. She… she killed Max! My gods, she killed Max," she wounded her fingers into that person's sleeve, "lord, Max is dead. Oh my. He's dead."_

" _What are you saying?" he clutched her shoulder, "dear, you are trembling. What girl? Who is Max?"_

 _Only then did she realize she still had no idea whom she was talking to. She looked up and found herself looking at another boy around her age with a pretty nice face._

" _Uh, sorry," she let go of him, "I… my friend… he… I don't know, he…"_

" _Sorry for what?" Nice Face Boy glanced at her._

" _I don't even know you and I was shaking you like crazy."_

" _I do agree that you are crazy, but not the first part. So stop acting like crazy."_

" _What… the first part?"_

 _Nice Face Boy exhaled, "you know me, Janelle. I have been your friend for like, a year. What the heck is wrong with you?"_

 _Janelle glanced around her frantically. She glanced at the crowd, where Max had fallen. Everybody was walking forward patiently. No chaos, no screams. No sign of someone-is-being-murdered-brutally-over- here._

" _I am fine," she stood up straight._

 _And fainted._

Janelle's eyes snapped opened. She stilled in her bed, a hand pressed over her chest as if it could slow her wild heartbeat. She waited until her heartbeat slowed down enough for her to sigh.

It had been almost a month since that girl killed her best friend, Max.

They had been in Disneyland. It had been an amazing day, until the girl killed Max.

Max had been replaced by the Nice Face Boy, whom she later found his name as Daniel. Max's life had been completely replaced by Daniel. As her best friend, as the math subject leader, as Max's parents' son.

She had asked a few classmates about Max, but they just looked at her like she was crazy. Soon, she realized that nobody but her remembered Max, so she decided to give up asking to avoid being looked at funny. But she knew he was real. He must be real.

She once thought that everyone she knew had forgotten about Max all in a sudden and had fake memories about Daniel. It sounded crazy, but it seemed right to Janelle.

But later, she started to think if she was going mad. She didn't tell her family. The last thing she wanted her parents to know was that their weird daughter was going even weirder, if that was possible.

And, yeah. Janelle knew she was weird.

Why?

Well, at first, you need to know that she was glad that she was born in a peaceful and warless country. And yet she always felt trapped, trapped in this world, this life. She longed to be free from restraint, to be someone whose life is always at risk.

Sometimes, she didn't know what she was exactly living for. Just to live a day. Another day. Another day. Until it seemed that life was an eternity of imprisonment for her. She was afraid of boredom. She always was. It almost seemed that boredom was a jail for her.

She sometimes dreamt that she was on an adventure like a fictional character, not a boring life like this one, go to school go back home do homework do revision go to sleep go to school go back home do homework do revision go to sleep go to school go back home…

She didn't let others know of her strange mind. She already knew she was kind of crazy and didn't want to be weird to others. But her classmates weren't blind. They knew that she was weird, when she sometimes gazed out of the window as if in some sort of trance. Or when she laughed when everyone was completely quiet. Or when she played with her pens for an hours. Or when stared at you with her eyes without blinking for a minute.

Her eyes were quite famous. They were bright blue and were always burning with some sort of fierce fire inside. People would love to have eyes like hers, but her eyes always seemed to have the ability to see through you and into your mind, digging all secrets from your heart. Her eyes seemed to speak a lot of words, but you never knew what exactly the words truly were. They could be either _you look pretty_ or _I want to cut all your insides out._

So, such famous eyes.

Janelle was born in a normal family, with two annoying parents and an even more annoying older brother, Jason. She always felt as if Jason was her little brother, as he was quite immature, comparing to her.

Her brother was quite popular, however. Jason Lambert was sixteen, two years older than Janelle. While Janelle was very short, he was pretty tall, more than a head taller than her sister. Something must be wrong with their DNA. He could be very annoying, but Janelle must admit he was quite a good brother and was always there for her, even though she was so strange and he was so stupid.

However, being so strange wouldn't help her from bullies.

So a few idiots enjoyed throwing their stuff at her. Sandwiches, staplers, water bottles and pretty much everything. One of them once threw a condom at her once. She wasn't really pleased about it and she naturally hit the condom-thrower. The condom-thrower wasn't pleased either, and the condom-thrower sincerely asked his friends to murder her. So when condom-thrower's friend #1 #2 #3 #4 chased her in an impolite way, she had to run in an unladylike way and told them something that her mom wouldn't suggest her to speak. The result was that she had gotten to the hospital.

So things went pretty normal for the next few weeks. Her life was exactly:

Wakes up—goes to school— dozes off in lessons—gets yelled by teachers—dozes off again—being yelled at again—pisses off some idiots—runs back home—sleeps— nightmares time

But sometimes, she could see the girl who killed Max. She thought she was having illusions at first, but soon she realized she was real. However, nobody seemed to notice her. Sometimes she would look out of the window in her room at night and she would see the girl, far far away. She could imagine the girl's dark eyes burning into her. But when the girl noticed Janelle, she would stepped into the shadows near her and disappeared into the darkness.

For more than once, Janelle tried to approach her. But the girl would be long gone before she reached her.

One day, she and her brother were riding a bus together to school that day. Jason had his nose buried in some notes as he would have a quiz in the first lesson and he had barely started studying, though Janelle sensed that his heart wasn't in it. Janelle soon also noticed the girl at the back of the bus and with her dark eyes fixed on her. Janelle looked away, trying to ignore the girl's gaze, which seemed almost burning a hole through the back of her head.

"Janelle?" suddenly Jason asked.

"Yeah?"

"There's the school prom next week. You going or not?"

"Can I not answer you?" Janelle was serious.

"No."

"I am serious."

"Ditto."

She sighed. "I think so."

"Do you mind, um, going there with, uh, me?"

"What? You?"

"Oh, come on, Janelle. Just brother and sister. Nothing special about it!"

"Everything is special about it, Jason. People intend to call it incest. I don't like being called incest. You don't like being called incest. Nobody like being called incest."

He rolled his eyes.

"By the way, where are your friends? You have like, ten girls lining up for you."

"Ah. There is a little… misunderstanding between my friends and me," he changed the subject as quickly as he could. "Are you coming or not?"

"Look, I am already too weird to make people think that I can be even weirder to go there with my brother weirdly, but…"

"Look, I don't think I understand what you are saying."

"Just, nobody actually knows me at school, so I don't care. But you… you have a whole bunch of friends. If you go to prom with me… well, you'd probably got laughed at for months."

He fell silent at that. Then he said, "better than having no date or not going there at all."

"What's wrong with you and your friends, anyway? I know it wasn't simply some misunderstanding. Yesterday, I saw them jabbing their fingers at you and laughing and you walked away with your shoulders hunched like Phils."

Phils's name is short for Philomena. She hated this name and made others called her Phils.

And she was an epileptic.

Jason opened his mouth and shut it, then opened again and shut it, and opened again and shut it. Then he said, "areyoustalkingme."

"Firstly, since I have nobody to talk with at school, I spend most of the time watching everyone else. And secondly, I am your sister. You can trust me."

Jason sighed. "So, this would be a few days ago. We went to this tower, like, sixty stories high, and…"

"But you are afraid of heights!"

"Yeah, that's the problem, and, well, I threw up on the top of the tower. I got laughed at, of course. The most painful thing is that they shot a video with it," he covered his eyes with his hands.

"Oops."

"Stop your pathetic _oops._ And now they are daring me to bungee jump and if I don't, they will post it on YouTube."

"Well, that pretty sucks. Just let them. Nobody's gonna watch, anyway."

"Yeah, around half of the school is gonna watch. No pro. And I said some really silly things when I vomited."

"Like…?"

" _Mama._ "

"Oh."

"Stop your pathetic _oh_ too."

Janelle grinned. "So, you have to either bungee jump or they will send that _mama video_ everywhere? Well, both are bad options."

"Oh, shut up," he groaned into his hands and said something like "wutcunIdo"

"What?"

He didn't say anything.

"Look, Jase, first, you cannot bungee jump. No way. I don't want my brother dies of heart attack or humiliation. I don't care which one, but I won't allow it."

"That means you are suggesting me to let them post that video?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"They are laughing at you because you are timid and are afraid of height, right? Then do something brave. Something much braver than bungee jump."

"Something that is even braver than bungee jump? Skydiving?"

"No, dumbass. Something that we all want to do, but no one in history, at least, in the school, has the nuts to do it. Think, Jason."

"Some tips?"

"13."

"Oh bloody hell, NO."

Of course everyone knew what was 13. It was a house a few blocks away from their school and its address was no.13. It was a creepy house with doors barely hanging with hinges here and there and no-leaf-trees' branches scratching the shattered window and the walls creaked and dead brown grass around the yard and the paints cracking and black cats going in and out of the house and a swing moving slightly all the time of the wind… well, you got the meaning.

Nobody had lived in it for decades and there were rumors like someone died in there and its ghost didn't pass on and stayed here and waiting for revenge and stuff, blah blah blah. But the scariest thing was that there was nobody living there, but sometimes there were screams coming out from the house. Someone called the police, but when the police went in, there was no sign of any living creatures except a rat. Then some random kid ran in there once and came out screaming and the family moved away and nobody had seen them ever since. Around six years ago, Janelle had dragged Jason to the yard of the 13 and spent the night watching the house and somewhere like two in the morning, there was really a howl and the sound of something shattering. Jason had dragged Janelle back home, though she still wanted to stay and see what was going on.

But anyway, it was the 13, the haunted house, the house of screaming, the house of death, ghost headquarters and another whole bunch of names.

"And you want me to go in."

"Exactly," Janelle nodded. "Nobody can say that you are timid if you go in and, well, come out sane and alive and without any pieces missing."

"Gods, you are so reassuring," he shuddered."But no. Absolutely no."

"Why not?"

"No no no no no no no no no. My name is No. My best friend is No."

She neglected him. "I could go in with you, if you really are going in."

"Then they would say I was hiding behind my little sister."

"Leave that to me. Can you do it?"

Jason sighed and turned back to his notes.

9 o'clock at that night, Janelle and Jason sneaked off and arrived at the 13. Three of his friends were waiting.

A huge bulky boy called Ben raised an eyebrow. "You didn't mention that your little sister is lagging along too."

"Oh, I am going to shoot a video for him, that's all," she held up a camera. "Say _cheese._ "

"You sister is really weird," Ben said.

"Oh, she always is."

Janelle glared at him and he shrugged.

"So… you are going in there for an hour?" Ben's girlfriend, a blonde called something like Zippor something. Her makeup was so heavy that Janelle could see the lip gloss and eye shadow even in the dark. She wore millions of necklaces and wristbands and Janelle could hear the shrill sound of the beads and chains brushing one another.

"Yes," Jason nodded firmly.

"And you will post this video instead of the mama-vomit one," Janelle added.

Jason whirled at him. "You."

"This is for getting back of agreeing I am weird."

"Lambert, I am already starting to like this weird sister of yours," the third one, a pump boy grinned. "I will hang out with you some day, if you two didn't run out screaming like three-year-olds."

"This Friday evening," Janelle winked back and turned to Jason. "You ready?"

Jason shook his head.

"Aw, come on," she grabbed his arm, holding up the camera, and stormed inside 13.

Janelle held up the camera and turned it so it was facing her. "Hello, whoever that is watching. Welcome to the 13, the haunted house, the house of screaming, the house of death, ghost headquarters. My name is Janelle Lambert. And this—" she flashed it to Jason "—is my brother, Jason. Say something, Jase."

"I wanna go home," he moaned.

"Aw, I will need to cut that part out," she grinned and filmed all around. "So this is the house we have been all freaking out with. This wasn't really that scary. Just like an old, grandma-old house. It look scarier from the outside. And here we are! The stairs, come on, Jason, let's go up."

"I'd rather stay here," he moaned again.

"Alright, you can stay here. I will go up on my own."

He followed unwillingly, clearly not wanting to be left alone.

This place was the sort of house you felt in the 19th century, with statues (dusted with webs), carpets (so dirty that you cannot even sees its original color), wooden floor, walls, and staircase (cracked). There were tables, chairs and cupboards around. There were some plates and cups in the cupboard, but some was shattered on the ground. Two chairs were broken.

"Wegottagohome," Jason tugged at Janelle's sleeve, but she just pulled him upstairs.

There was a shattered window at the top of the staircase and Janelle peaked out. She saw Jason's three friends out there, clearly uncomfortable.

"Hey guys, out there!" she yelled. "We are still alive!"

Jason grabbed the back of her shirt. "Shut up! What if someone… or, something, is, you know, here?"

Janelle moved so her face was in the screen. "My baby brother is scared. And, by the way, you aren't going to stay as those assholes friends after you get out, right? They don't worth to be your friends."

"Well, I don't have others friends."

"Me?"

"Not you."

She bounced away from the window and Jason followed.

"Let's go inside one of the rooms."

"Oh gods, no," Jason groaned and Janelle yank one door opened. There was nothing inside but a dusty bed and a black cat, standing under the moonlight.

"Hello, kitty," Janelle held out a hand and the cat leapt off from the window.

"Ouché," she winced and walked to the next door and yanked it opened.

And found a girl with dark eyes staring right into hers.

She screamed and threw herself backward, hitting Jason, who screamed and fell back, and the two hit the ground, a tangle of limbs.

They scrambled up, their backs against the wall and stared at the girl. She was still standing at the frame of the door and a long knife was dangling loosely between her fingers. Her eyes were intense on the two panting children, but she didn't say anything or move. In fact, she moved so barely that Janelle couldn't even see her chest rising and falling.

"I have seen you before," Jason whispered. "You… you are the one who killed Mrs Anderson's cat and has been following me!"

"She has been following you? But… she is following me! And she killed Max!"

The two turned to the girl, who was still standing there, motionless.

"Who are you?" Janelle hissed.

The girl stared at them for a few more seconds. Then she stepped forward, her feet startlingly silent against the floor while it creaked under the Lambert's shifting feet.

She stopped in front of Janelle, her face just a few inches from Janelle's. Though the girl looked no older than eleven, she was still tall, the top of her head coming to Janelle's eyebrows.

Janelle stepped back.

The girl spoke for the first time. "You are dead." Her voice was too shrill to be an adult, to deep for a child.

"What?" Janelle stared. The girl was dead serious.

"You shouldn't be in here," she said again. "Get out before they kill you."

"Who kill us?"

"Get out now!" she suddenly yelled and seized Janelle's arm, who shrieked and tried to wrench her arm out of the girl's grip. When she couldn't, she hit the girl's face with her torch.

The girl didn't make a sound, but her grip loosened. Janelle jerked back, grabbed Jason's shirt, and tore down the staircases.

Then a hand grabbed the back of her shirt and both of them were yanked back. The girl dragged both of them back and pulled them to their feet.

"It's too late. They are already down there," she hissed.

"Let me go!" Jason screamed.

The girl really did let him go, but she only darted to the stairs, threw something down, leapt back and grabbed Jason's arm again.

A guttery scream came from below.

"What is that?" Janelle cried out.

"Enemies," the girl pulled them backward.

"They might be Ben and Zippor and the other boy!" Janelle screamed.

The girl stopped. "You have friends in here?"

"They are waiting for us outside, but they might have gone in when they heard us screamed! Now you have killed them, haven't you? You…"

"They were already killed," the girl shook her head and jerked open a door violently. Behind the door was another staircase that led upstairs. "Go to the attic, lock the door and lock the window. Go!"

"I am not taking orders from you, you bitch…"

She shoved them inside the door and shut it, leaving the two of them sitting in the darkness.

Jason jumped up and slammed onto the door. "Hey! Heyyyyyyy!"

Janelle flashed her torchlight up to the darkness. "I saw a door up there."

"I'm not going anywhere that the bitch called us to go to."

"Well, that seems like our only option, right?"

"We can stay here."

"There may be a window at the attic. We can see if the others are fine or not from there," Janelle replied.

Jason ran up instantly. Janelle followed.

They found the stairs ending with a door. There was a little _pull_ beside the handle. Jason pulled, but the door didn't budge. He growled in frustration.

Janelle tried and pulled. It wouldn't move. Then she pushed as hard as she could.

Then she tumbled into the room.

Jason helped her up. "I am not going to trust these signs anymore."

Janelle smiled and looked around. She found a window and ran to it.

When she peeked outside, she saw no sign of the others three.

"They might have ran away," Janelle patted Jason's back, trying to comfort him.

"Then what did that creep girl said about them being killed?"

He sat down on the floor and Janelle looked around. There was nothing in this place except a dusted table. Janelle pushed against the door to barricade the entrance.

She returned and sat back down next to Jason. She had lost her bag and torchlight, but the camera, which she had tied to her wrist, was still hanging there. She raised it and found it had stopped filming at some time.

She played the video.

"Say cheese," she saw Ben and heard her own voice.

"You sister is really weird," Ben said.

"Oh, she always is." Jason's voice rang from the background.

The screen moved slightly. Janelle could imagine herself glaring at him and him shrugging.

"So… you are going in there for an hour?"

"Yes."

"And you will post this video instead of the mama-vomit one."

"You."

"This is to get back of agreeing I am weird."

"Lambert, I am already starting to like this weird sister of yours. I will hang out with you some day, if you two didn't run out screaming like three-year-olds."

"This Friday evening," a pause. "You ready?"

"Aw, come on," the image moved violently and when it stopped, it was already inside the House.

The screen moved again and it showed Janelle, who was holding it like a selfie. "Hello, whoever that is watching. Welcome to the 13, the haunted house, the house of screaming, the house of death, ghost headquarters. My name is Janelle Lambert. And this—" it moved to Jason "—is my brother, Jason. Say something, Jase."

"I wanna go home," he moaned into the screen.

"Aw, I will need to cut that part out," her voice laughed. "So this is the house we have been all freaking out with. This wasn't really that scary. Just like an old, grandma-old house. It look scarier from the outside. And here we are! The stairs, come on, Jason, let's go up."

"I'd rather stay here," he moaned again.

"Alright, you can stay here. I will go up on my own."

The scene moved up the stairs.

"Wegottagohome," Jason's voice again.

"Hey guys, out there!" Janelle's yell. The scene moved again and through a shattered window, three figures were standing outside. The scene zoomed in to them. It wasn't clear, but Janelle could make out the shimmering of Zippor's golden hair. "We are still alive!"

The scene shuddered. "Shut up! What if someone… or, something, is, you know, here?"

Janelle's head popped into the screen. "My baby brother is scared. And, by the way, you aren't going to stay as those assholes friends after you get out, right? They don't worth to be your friends."

"Well, I don't have others friends."

"Me?"

"Not you."

"Let's go inside one of the rooms."

"Oh gods, no," Jason groaned. A door was yanked opened. There was nothing inside but a dusty bed and a black cat, standing under the moonlight.

"Hello, kitty," a hand appeared in the screen, reaching for the cat. It leapt off from the window.

"Ouché," the scene moved again and turned to the next door. Janelle's hand yanked it opened.

There was a brief shot of a room with a bed and a table, then a scream from Janelle. The scene went wild and it was clear that Janelle had lost her grip on the camera and the only reason it hadn't fallen to the ground was because Janelle had tied it to her wrist.

The camera must be spinning wildly by this time, as everything in the scene was turning like crazy. But one thing was obvious.

Nobody was standing in front of Janelle and Jason.

Then the video clicked stopped.

Janelle looked up at Jason, who was also looking at her.

"Maybe… maybe it is only a coincidence that the camera didn't capture that girl," Jason reassured her, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "Maybe… maybe…"

"There is no coincidence in this world, Jason," she told him and replayed the video. Still, no sign of the girl.

"Wait," Jason called out suddenly. "Go back… and stop."

The scene stopped at the moment when Janelle flung opened the door where the creepy girl was standing. It wasn't clear, slightly blurred, but they could make out a clean bed, a clean table and chair and even a loaf of bread on the table. Clothes were hung everywhere. A few flashlights were placed around, lighting up the room with dim, pale light.

"She had lived here for quite a time already," Janelle scowled.

"Maybe…"

A sound of explosion reached their ears.

They shot to their feet at the same time. The door shuddered at the impact of the explosion.

Janelle shuddered and glanced out of the window. There was nothing that she could step on if she climbed down the house from the window. She took out her phone and handed it to Jason. "Call any of those three friends of yours."

He hit the buttons quickly, but the phone immediately hit the voice mails.

He cursed and dialed two mores. Straight to voice mails as well.

"Goddamn!" he hit the buttons so hard that it fell right out of his hand.

Janelle picked it up. The screen had cracked when it hit the ground and she couldn't turn it on. She shoved it into her pocket and turned to Jason. She didn't bother saying _they will be fine_ because she knew they were not fine.

All she did was drew her legs up and hugged her knees tightly. Jason pressed himself against her and waited.

The hours of waiting was absolute agony. Once in half an hour there would be the sound of something smashing. It would be around four o'clock in the morning when things finally quieted down.

"Should we go?" Jason asked.

"If not now, when?" Janelle answered.

They pushed the table, which was barricading the door, away. Janelle pulled the door opened and peeked down. Nobody.

They crept downstairs and stopped at the door. Janelle pushed open a creak and peeked out. "Nobody's out there."

"Should we run or tiptoe?"

"Both."

She pushed open the door as quietly as she could and sprinted silently. Behind her, Jason was running like an awkward elephant.

She slid downstairs by the railing and raced to the door. She dashed outside and finally stopped when she crossed the yard.

Jason arrived a few seconds after, panting.

"Let's get the crap out of here," she caught his wrist and pulled, but he stopped her.

"What?"

"There."

He pointed at the ground. Janelle drew back a breath.

 _She wore millions of necklaces and wristbands and Janelle could hear the shrill sound of the beads and chains brushing one another._

On the ground was one of Zippor's wristbands.


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

It was now Late February.

Ben, Zippor, and Janelle's will-be-dating boy disappeared. Nobody knew where they went. Some of Jason's friends asked him what happened at the 13, but he told them that the three of them were gone when Janelle and Jason left the house. Not precisely wrong, actually.

But at least, Janelle knew she wasn't mad now. Jason also saw that girl even though the camera didn't capture her, and he did remember Max when she talked to him.

He told her that he started noticing that girl a few weeks ago. None of his friends saw her, and he didn't dare to tell anyone that he saw things that others could not. He originally thought that the girl was following him, but now as he thought more closely, he realized whenever he saw her, Janelle must be near. So she was actually stalking his sister, though they had no idea why.

He once saw the girl killing a neighbor's cat, but he didn't bother. Now he couldn't help thinking why.

At least, the girl disappeared after the incident at 13. None of them dared to return and seek out what was really happening back in there.

Around a week later, Janelle was sitting on a bench in a park, reading a boring novel for reading report. It was kind of freezing cold out on here, but glancing at the laughing children stopped her from dozing off.

Then someone sat down beside her and Janelle glanced at her.

It was an Asian girl with a hood drawn over her face. Though it wasn't snowing right now, it was still February. But she wasn't wearing much clothes. Just a zipped up jacket with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows, revealing some strange, black tattoos on her skin. Underneath the jacket was a dark dress that hung to her knees. The boots that she wore was for mountain climbing. There was a huge bag slung over her shoulder, but it seemed empty. Then Janelle's eyes rested on the most terrifying part.

On the belt of the ten-year-old hung a few daggers and a knife long enough to be a sword. Her arms, thighs and back was also striped with knives. There was even a short dagger concealed in each of her boot. The left side of her jacket was slashed opened and red blood was flowing out freely. She had a hand clamped on it.

The Janelle recognized her, "you are the one who killed Max and the girl in 13."

The girl glanced at her. Her face was hiding in the shadows of her hood, but Janelle caught sight of a pair of shimmering black eyes. The girl spoke in a Chinese accent, "you can see me?"

"Of course I can!" Janelle stared at her, "what, you are invisible?"

The girl raised an eyebrow, "yeah, maybe. Do you think I can walk around with blood pouring down my side and without anyone noticing?" she waved at the crowd, but nobody paid her any attention, "who is Max?"

"A friend of mine. You killed him in Disneyland!"

Someone glanced at her. The girl's eyes twinkled, "keep your voice down. You are talking into air right now."

"You killed someone! He is my friend!" she was yelling now, "I will call the police. He is killed by a lunatic who thinks she was invisible!"

Some people casted her weird looks again. One frowned and steered her child away from Janelle.

"I guess you are the one who is being called the lunatic, isn't it?" the girl said drily, "since nobody remembers Max and you are screaming at nothing now."

Yeah, famous blue eyes.

Janelle gritted her teeth but lowered her voice, "what have you done to Max and my friends at 13? They disappeared. What did you mean by they were killed? Did you kill them? What… what are you?"

"Your friends are dead," the girl's eyes suddenly widened when she glanced behind Janelle, "damn"

"What?" Janelle looked behind her but saw nothing but running children. When she looked back, the girl was gone.

Janelle shot to her feet and looked around, knowing the girl wouldn't be able to get away in such a short period of time.

But she was nowhere near. As if she had disappeared into thin air. Even the puddle of blood on the bench was gone.

Ever since then, Janelle would sometimes catch glimpses of the girl. But whenever she saw the girl, the girl would move away and disappeared again.

The two siblings had not seen the girl for a few months, which was kind of a relief, but they couldn't help wondering where had she gone to.

So one day after detention, it was already evening. Janelle hurried back home but it was one of the worst trip back home. She never knew that it was her last trip to go back home from school.

It had been raining this entire day but the rain eventually stopped when she was attending her lovely detention. So when she jumped over a puddle of water, some weird thing happened.

The world exploded into blinding white light.

Time stopped. Which was, literally stopped. Janelle could still feel herself in the air when she jumped. She tried to move her hand, but it was as if something was compressing against her, stopping her from moving. Her muscle burned when she tried to move.

She wanted to look at anyone near her, but her eyes didn't work against the light. She didn't even know if her eyeballs moved or not. Her sight went dark, blinding her. But she could still feel the light around her, as if drowning her into its very own light.

Then it was over.

The light disappeared as suddenly it came. She fell down on the ground, her ankle twisting a little when she landed. Her hand snapped down to her lap. She collapsed.

"Hey! Girl!" she felt someone grabbing her arm. Her eyesight was still dark.

She blinked and felt the arms helping her sit down on a bench nearby. She blinked again and her sight started to come back slowly. First everything was a blur, then things came into focus. A group of around three or four people was crowding around her.

"The… the light," Janelle rasped, "what is it?"  
"Light?" a woman scowled, "what light?"

"The blinding white light, of course!" she stared at the people around her, "the screaming, piercing light that seems to freeze time!"

"Young lady," a man spoke slowly and concernedly, "nothing had happened. No light had shone. You simply collapsed in a sudden. What did you see?"

Half an hour later, Janelle arrived back at home. When she burst upstairs and opened her room door, she was quite surprise to find Jason sitting on her bed, his eyes fixed on her intensely.

"Did you see it?" he asked.

"The light?" she nodded, "yes."

"No else did," Jason shook his head, "Mom, Dad… my friends texted me as if nothing had happened. Then I remembered you can see the girl like I did when everyone else could not, so I took a wild guess that you could also see the light."

"Turn out that you are right," she sat down beside him, "nobody in the streets could see as well. So do you think it is something about that girl again?"

"Yeah. I am sure of it. And talking of the girl…" he fished out a piece of paper in his pocket and handed it to his sister, "here. Found it on your desk."

She took it and read it quickly. There weren't many words on it.

 **Janelle,**

 **I have put two daggers in your bed. Give Jason one.**

 **Keep them close to you. And keep close, both of you.**

 **And stay inside your room until I come.**

 **Zack**

"Zack?" Janelle frowned, "gave us what?"

Jason didn't say anything. But when she looked up from the note, she saw a dagger in each of his hand. He handed one to Janelle, who took it with shaking hand.

"In your bed," he confirmed.

Her face darkened, "the girl sneaked inside my room?"

"I think so. Or how else could she put a note on your desk, concealed two knives in your bed without any others noticing?"

"She told us to stay together. Will you?"

"Well, if she wants to kill us, she could have just put a bomb there or waited in here until we came. So if she wasn't trying to kill us and as she owed us quite a lot of explanation, I am fine with staying. I am just wondering if we should tell Mom and Dad."

" _Mom, Dad, a girl gave us this knife. She is invisible, you see. And she killed someone called Max. You once knew Max, but you have forgotten him. Nobody else remembers him. I have no idea what is going on."_

"You are making it sounds ridiculous," Jason grumbled, "but honestly, what is so special about us? Nobody sees the girl. We do. No one remembers Max. We do. Nobody sees the light. We do."

Janelle bowed her head, "I guess all the answers are at the Zack girl. We will need to find her," she stared at her dagger, "what is going on?"

Luckily, the dagger didn't answer her.

"Where do you think that girl is?" Jason asked.

"Got to be near. She…" her voice wavered when she felt something cold and sharp pressed up against her spine and something plucked her knife out of her hand and threw it on her bed.

Jason's eyes widened. But before he could move, his knife was knocked out from his hand and a blade was locked on his throat.

Janelle stared at the creature behind him. It looked perfectly normal. It was in its early-twenties and with a head of short spiky hair and shimmering golden eyes.

But its skin was green.

Janelle swallowed but made sure that her expression didn't change. The last thing she could afford is to look weak.

"Who are you?" she barked. Jason glanced at her, clearly surprised by her calmness.

"Who are we?" the creature who was holding her snickered and brushed its lips against her neck. She growled and tried to shake him off, but he had an arm around her with the tip of his knife digging into her skin.

"We are monsters, aren't we?" another voice rang. It was rough and deep. Janelle could only see the creature behind Jason, but she wondered how many creatures were there in her room, "and we are sent here to kill you."

"The why are we still alive?" she inquired and thought of the Zack girl. If she could leave a note in her room, that means she couldn't be far away. She must be near and would come here in any second. Janelle didn't trust the girl, but the girl was their only chance.

"Why haven't we killed you yet?" the deep voice mused again and stepped in front of her. This one was quite tall with purple skin, "do you want death, huh?"  
She glared at it.

"Bravo. I will tell you. We are sent here to grab you and drag you back to our master. Satisfied?"

"Who is your master?" Jason managed.

"Our master? You need not to learn, young Lambert."

"Is your master so scared of two little children that he dared not to reveal himself?" somehow, Janelle wasn't afraid. All she felt was anger, "coward."

"His name is the Power One! You know nothing!" another creature squeaked.

"Who say it!" the purple one whirled around and Janelle took this opportunity to throw herself sideways, barely managing to dodge under another creature's swing.

She snatched up the dagger that the Zack girl gave Janelle and swiped it wildly, forcing the creature back.

Jason was beside her in a second, his dagger also raised in his hands. The two stood back-to-back instinctively and took a clear look around the room. Janelle's heart dropped.

There were at least ten monsters in her room. (don't ask her why could all of them managed to cram in her small room. She has no idea) The purple one smiled at her cruelly, a dagger twirling in its hand.

"You know what? My master told us to bring you two back, alive. But he said bringing one alive is also fine, if you two cause too much trouble. As for the other one…" he snapped his fingers, "you have two choices before you, kids. Run and die, or put down your weapons, come here, and don't struggle as we drag you away."

"What do your master want with us?" Jason had also started to calm down.

"This is none of your concern," it smirked.

"Let me guess. You master didn't even tell you," Janelle made a face, "dear me, do you know what a doggie is? I adore doggie, and you look like a doggie to me. Just slightly uglier."

Jason choked.

The monster's nostrils flared, "shut the…"

Another figure leapt into the room from the window. Janelle made a mental note that she would keep her window shut in the future. She didn't doubt that the creatures came in from her window.

The figure landed and stood there calmly. Everyone jumped back in surprise.

"You!" Jason cried out as he recognized her as the Zack girl who had followed them for long. The girl shot him a glare to shut him up.

"Oh, hello, Bobby," the girl beamed at the purple monster.

"My name is not Bobby!" it shrieked.

"Yeah, yeah, but as you don't really have a name, so I gave you one. You should be gratified that I gave you such a beautiful name. Janelle, Jason, DUCK."

Jason obviously still hadn't got the meaning. "What duck? Is there a duck near?"

Janelle managed to tackle him to the ground as two of the Zack girl's knives sailed above their heads and each sank into a chest of one monster.

The room exploded into chaos. The monsters surged forward to meet the girl and avenged their fallen friends. Janelle motioned Jason to follow her to escaped by the window.

"But we can't leave the girl here on her own!" he cried out.

"Nor can we help. Come on," she replied.

She only had time to raise a foot to the frame of the window when something grabbed her around the waist and flung her back to the ground.

Stabbing pain exploded behind her head when it hit the corner of her desk. She slid down onto the floor, her knife now clattered out of her hand. Darkness threatened to drown her. She blinked furiously, keeping the dark spots away from her vision.

A creature with yellow skin grinned at her, "trying to run, huh?"

It raised its sword. Janelle desperately tried to move away, but her entire body felt like lead. All she could manage is to stay conscious and watched.

Then it screamed and fell on the ground.

She blinked and saw Jason standing behind it, holding his knife. The blade was now splattered with blood. He dropped it and stared at the dagger on the ground. He didn't even notice as the creature started to shrink until nothing was left except the smear of black blood on the ground.

Janelle understood what he was thinking. He had just killed a soul with his own hands. It might have killed Janelle if he didn't interfere, but still, he killed someone. He sank to his knees and Janelle forced herself to crawl beside him, ignoring the pounding of her head. She gripped his hand tightly and he whispered, "I… I kill someone. I killed it."

Janelle didn't have time to soothe him. She watched the girl killing another monster with one quick slash. The creature disappeared immediately.

Then the girl turned to the purple creature, Bob.

"Go ahead! Kill me!" it glared at the girl. All of its friends had disappeared now, only leaving some clothes, weapons and puddles of blood. Janelle couldn't believe this ten-year-old was such a brutal but skilled killer.

"I like people who do not fear death, but not you, Demon," she stepped closer, her knife dangling loosely between her fingers, "go to the Operation. Go tell your pathetic master that Zackline has gotten hold of the First and Fourth. You may be too stupid to understand what I am saying, but the Power One does. Now, get off!"

Bob jumped out of the window and disappeared.

When the girl turned to the Lamberts, all Janelle managed was "you killed them all"

"Yeah, I did, except Bob and the one you killed," she wiped some black blood away from her cheek and wiped her hand on her jacket, her face a mask of disgust, "Janelle Lambert, you are hurt.

"Just hit my head. It's… aw!" she yelped in pain when the girl, Zackline, touched her hand to the back of Janelle's head. Instantly, the pain faded. Janelle looked at the girl, amazed, "how did you do that?"

Suddenly the girl leapt to the door and locked it. A moment later, they heard someone trying to open the door. Then their mother's voice rang, "you two ok? I think I heard screams!"

"Just horror movies, Mom," Zackline called back. She had mimicked Janelle's voice perfectly. She sent the two a _make-a-noise-and-I-will- mess-with-you-with-my-little-daggers_ glare, warning them to stay silent.

"Turn the volume down! The noise is crazy! Can't I have a few minutes of peace? You two are totally annoying! Why don't you open the door? I am angry with you two. Totally angry. I am serious! Now, you…"

"Yeahhhhhh I know it. We will be fine, Mom," Zackline called out in Jason's voice this time. The annoyance in her voice was genuine and it didn't need to be faked at all. They could read it on Zackline's face.

"Hm," they heard their mother leaving.

"How can you speak with my voice?" Jason stared.

"After all these, this didn't surprise me. What I want to know is that why can't our parents learn of what happened?" Janelle asked.

"Yeah, you make more sense, Janelle. If your parents know what is going on, it will only put them in danger. Grave danger. Mortal danger," Zackline paused and waved her hand. All the blood on the floor disappeared magically, "I will explain later. We need to leave immediately. Bob will returns with a whole army of Demons soon. They won't bother your parents when you two aren't here. They might threaten you with your parents if I were not here, but since I was, they knew threatening you two is not a point since you are completely under my control," she smiled happily. "You two better grab something before you leave. Some money. I am out of them lately. I haven't had a proper meal for a week already," she started checking on the weapons on the floor.

"How can we trust you?" Janelle glanced at Zackline, bracing herself for a cold comment from the girl.

Instead, Zackline smiled, "taking precaution. Yeah, good thing. You don't have to trust me. You now have two choices, like just now when Bob asked you to go with them. You can trust the one who have just saved your life, or you can stay here and wait for Bob to return. I am not leaving your sides, so you two will be taken, and I will die. Make your choice," Zackline shrugged as if it was no big deal. Her eyes shone when she found a money bag from those monsters on the ground. "Ah."

She stuffed it in her bag, which was still empty like every other times Janelle saw it. But she couldn't see the shape of the money bag. Janelle guessed there was something special about the empty bag. It proved her right when Zackline dropped a few knives inside but the empty bag didn't change at all.

"Explain everything to us," Jason demanded. "You killed Max, follow us, killed my three friends, killed a whole bunch of creatures. Tell us everything."

"Oh, of course I can. But we will be dead before I am done explaining," she smiled cheerfully. "Actually, I think you two still have around five minutes to pack before we die, and I am no big fan of dying. So, do you trust me or not?"

Janelle glanced at Jason, who nodded, surprisingly. "She saved our lives. I think she had earned out trust," he turned to Zackline, who was glancing out of the window, "where are you bringing us to?"

"A temporarily safe place. Come on, let's go before those things returned. We will leave in a few minutes."

"There is no way we can pack our stuff in a few minutes!" Jason protested.

"Just some money, clothes. Not much clothes actually. You are lucky that it is now summer. Change into some dark clothes and wear sneakers. No sandals."

"Not even our ID cards?" Janelle frowned.

"Or toothbrush?" Jason added.

"Nah, no need. We are children. We can lie that we leave our IDs at home. And you won't die if you don't brush your shiny little white teeth. Now, quickly!" she shooed them away, "don't let your parents know you are leaving."

Jason went back to his room. Janelle quickly changed her clothes and grabbed some money. Meanwhile, Zackline flipped open Janelle's exercise book. She studied it for a few moments, and then found a piece of paper and started writing.

When Janelle was finished with her things, she peered over Zackline's shoulder to see what she was doing. She was writing a note for Janelle's parents and her handwriting was exactly the same with Janelle's.

"How did you…" Janelle stared.

Zackline winked at her and for an instant, she almost looked like a ten-year-old, "tell you later."

Janelle stared at the note.

 **Mom, Dad,**

 **We am sorry that we have to leave without a goodbye. Please don't call the cops. We aren't abducted. Just make up something like we went to camp or a trip, whatever. Please, we are begging you.**

 **We will explain everything when we return.**

 **Jason & Janelle**

Janelle glanced at Zackline, "will we return?"

The girl didn't reply.

Janelle took the pen from Zackline, who raised an eyebrow at her. Janelle slowly wrote down a few words after _We will explain everything when we return._

 **We love you two.**

Zackline didn't say anything. But Janelle could see bitterness on her face, and possibly envy too.

Zackline shut the emotion off her face once she noticed Janelle glancing at her. It wasn't that easy to close up a face, so Janelle guessed this girl had been through quite a lot of things to learn something like this.

Jason poked his head in, "you not… you know, nake?"

"JASON LAMBERT."

Jason grinned and walked in. Zackline shook her head in exasperation, "we will leave by the window."

"Not by the door? Why?" Jason tilted his head.

Janelle sighed, "Jason, what do you think Mom would say when she saw Zackline?"

"I would like to see."

Janelle ignored him and turned back to Zackline, who was smiling. "Lead the way, Zackline."

The girl nodded and jumped out of the window to the tree outside like no big deal. She caught Janelle and Jason when they leapt out clumsily and they were soon all on the ground.

Zackline started hurrying away. She could move pretty fast with those short legs. The Lamberts had to jog after her.

They finally caught up with her when she stopped at a bus stop. The two were panting like crazy, but Zackline wasn't tired at all. In fact, no bead of sweat had broken on her forehead at all.

"Get any coins? Our bus is coming," Zackline waved at a bus that was approaching.

"A bus?" Jason cracked a smile.

"What? Anything wrong with it?" Zackline glanced at them.

"No, no. It is just… all these monster things, and we are getting on a bus to run away from them. Sort of ridiculous."

"You are ridiculous, boy," Zackline rolled her eyes.

"Boy? Hey, you are younger than me…"

"I am twenty-one."

"What? But… but you look only around ten! What are you?" Jason exclaimed.

"I will explain when we get on the bus," she replied darkly.

"The driver can see you," Janelle suddenly noticed, "and you don't want our mother to see you. Aren't you invisible? You don't need to pay for the bus fare if you turn invisible."

"Not now. It will be a while before I can turn invisible again."

"Why?" Jason asked.

"Long story."

They got to the back seats of the bus. It was almost midnight now and there was only two or three person else on the bus beside them. They were glancing at them, probably wondering what was three children doing in the middle of the night.

"First, where are our friends at the 13? Why did you kill them?" Janelle asked.

"First, three idiotic humans standing by the 13. Surely they knew something was wrong about this place, and yet they went here. Like you two morons," she nodded at the two of them. "And second, it is Demons that killed them. And third, I never kill human."

"And Max?"

Zackline didn't say anything. She just pulled the hood from her face and took off her jacket.

Janelle's eyes darted to her arms again. She didn't have much time to study her tattoos last time, but now she realized it wasn't tattoos. They were like runes instead of drawing and words. Janelle could almost feel the power under the black swirling pattern.

Janelle raised her eyes to Zackline's face and she realized with a start that it was the first time she saw Zackline without the hood that covered her face. Her face was like a ten-year-old one, but very weary. There was a scar on her cheek. Her eyes were ink black, but the pain and intelligence in them told people that she wasn't like any other children. It was as if they had seen too much, too much horror. Her hair was as dark as her eyes and was plaited into a tight braid. It stretched all the way down to her waist. Janelle secretly wondered how long would her hair be if the braid came loose. She also wondered what would be Zackline's reaction if she cut her hair off. She didn't think Zackline would thank her for the haircut and offered her a candy for repayment.

"I do believe you are twenty," Janelle decided to start the subject, "but how…"

"I am not human. I am born a special species," Zackline stared out at the window, "and here is the tricky part. A story that will stretch back to thousands of years ago."

"Just tell me what you are," Janelle insisted.

"A species which growing rate is two times slower than normal human. There are only five of us in this world. We do sorcery and…" she paused, "Witch."

"You are kidding, right?" Jason stared in half wonder and half horror.

"Do I look like someone who likes kidding?" she snapped.

"Then prove it," Janelle glanced at her.

Zackline held out her arms and closed her eyes. She muttered something that Janelle couldn't clearly but she was sure that it wasn't English. It was more powerful, more ancient.

Then a mark on her right wrist glowed.

"Whoa," Jason muttered.

"This is called a Rune. Each Rune stood for a spell. This is Speed. This is Strength, Nightvision. The fade one is Veil, and that is why I can disappear all the time. I can wipe out everyone's memories about that boy Max, though it took quite a lot of energy to perform that spell. It is also why I can mimic your voice and handwriting. But if I use up all the power of the Rune, it will fade and it will takes time for the power to return again. And that is why you can see me, as my Rune of Veil has faded."

"I get it but…" Janelle didn't feel surprise. She felt like she had prepared for these for many years – like she was listening to a song without knowing its name and someone was telling her of the name now, "but then what is so special of Jason and I? And why did you kill Max?"

"Well, for the Max part, Max was a Demon. It must have noticed something was different about you two. Thus it got friendly with you so it could find out what you are more easily," she paused a little, "ah, you must be wondering why you couldn't see that it was a monster. Its type is very special and rare. A Shape-Shifter. So when I killed it, I shielded both of us from the human's sight and created a person to take its place. The Daniel boy wasn't real. It was just a person in my mind. It was a huge spell that affect normal human."

"What, we aren't human?" Jason joked a little too loudly and a man glanced back at them.

Both the man and Jason earned the famous death glare from Zackline, "lower your voice, dumbass. That is a very dangerous story. I prefer to tell you when we arrive at the safe place. All I can tell now is that you are called the Power Nemisises, the bane of the Power One."

"The Bob creature's master," Janelle remembered, "but… first, what are they? Bob? And the Power One?"

"I suggest you to speak of the name Power One more carefully. It is one of the most powerful names on Earth. And as for Bob… well, he is a kind of Demon. Not very powerful, just like any other human, but when there is a crowd of them and only a few of us…" Zackline shrugged. "Not a good thing. His species is called the Ants. They are like ants, weak but everywhere."

"A demon… what exactly is a demon? Like… I don't know, its definition?" Jason asked rather stupidly.

To Janelle's surprise, Zackline was serious when she answered, "a type of creature that served the Dark Lord, the Power One. Bob's species is usually called Ant, but its true and original name is Kwyía."

"Is that English?"

"No. It is called Demonish," she replied, "ah. We are almost here. Come."

They hopped off the bus. Zackline started walking again.

"Where?" Jason asked.

"Sanctuary of Chaos. Not exactly a good place to stay, but it is not easy to be found if you are inside. Come on."

"We only get on the bus for a few minutes. Why don't we walk directly from our house to that Sanctuary of Chaos?" Janelle asked.

"Mostly to lose our tracks so Bob cannot find us so easily. But…" she suddenly paused and tilted her head as if listening. A rune on her forearm glowed.

"They are almost here. It didn't work," she cursed suddenly, "come, as quickly as you can!"

She broke into a run. You could imagine how hard it was with the Lamberts to struggle after her pace, when they couldn't even catch up with her normal speed.

She stopped suddenly and pushed the Lamberts ahead, "go, go, go! Straight ahead and looked for a small green door. GO!"

She fished out a pistol from her bag and shot. There was a shriek of pain and Janelle realized Bob and its friends were closer to them than she thought.

Grabbing hold of Jason's wrist, she dragged him forward, though not happy with the idea of leaving Zackline. But she must trust Zackline.

It was only a minute when she saw a green door at the side of an alley. She threw it open and both of them ducked behind it. Janelle shut the door closed.

"So… we are at the Sanctuary of Chaos?" Jason whispered.

Janelle looked around. It was completely dark and she couldn't even see her own fingers. She kept a hand on Jason and the other hand on her dagger. "It doesn't seem quite _chaotic_ here, right? So I…"

Her voice was then swallowed by yells and screams outside. The clash of metal was also heard. Janelle held her breath, hoping the door wouldn't get kick opened. Being stabbed wasn't one of her hobbies.

Then the noises started to fade. Janelle knew it wasn't safe to go out, but she didn't care. She yanked the door open and looked around.

The first thing that came to her sight was some swords and torn clothes. This recalled her memories of the fight in her bedroom.

A few yards away lay Zackline.

Horrified, she ran to the wounded girl. She had a hand on her stomach and blood was gushing out between her fingers.

"No," Janelle breathed.

Zackline grasped Janelle's hand with a bloodied hand. She croaked out two words.

"Questilsa Breslin."

"Questilsa Breslin? Who?" Janelle asked but Zackline didn't replied. She released Janelle's hand and it fell slack.

Zackline was dead.


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

"What now?" Janelle stared at the limp form of Zackline. She was sure that the girl had died for them. She kept the monsters' attention on her so Janelle and Jason could escape.

"I… I don't know. She is dead," Jason muttered, "I…"

Janelle slumped onto the ground and stared up at the night sky. She wished she knew what was going on. She felt like an idiot now, not even knowing who she was.

"Let's go back to that green door first," Jason touched her arm, "and we will figure out the rest."

Janelle nodded but stopped Jason when he reached to pick Zackline up, "no. I guess Bob and its friends just left her here and went looking for us. When it returns and finds Zackline gone, it will know that we are around," her voice broke, "we have to leave her here."

Jason nodded and released Zackline. Taking his sister's arm gently, he led her back to the little dark house.

The two stumbled in the darkness for a while until Jason found the controls and switched them on.

The place immediately sprang into light. They were actually in the storage room of a closed shop. There was nothing but empty paper boxes and metal shelves in the storage room, but it was quite a nice place to hide in.

The two sat down and Janelle drew her legs up to her chest. Guilt hit her like an angry sea with its waves licking their way up cliffs. She rested her folded arms on her knees and cried into them.

Jason patted her back, "sh, sh, sh. Janelle, we have to focus on what is going on. About this Questilsa Breslin. Zackline wouldn't want us to grieve over her death until Bob catches us."

Janelle wiped her tears away with the back of her hand, "yeah, you are right. So what now? After Zackline died for us?"  
"I guess Zackline wanted us to find this Questilsa Breslin person," Jason said. "Maybe Breslin knows something about this Power One stuff and can protect us?"

The door wasn't fully closed and a crack was left. Janelle stared out into the darkness outside the door. It was barely one o'clock in the morning now and nobody had passed through this alley yet.

"We have to find her," Janelle said. "But we don't even know who is she. We have never heard of this name before. How can we find her?"

Jason took out his phone and did a quick search. "Just search this name in Google. No person that is called Questilsa Breslin is found," he sighed. "So how can we contact her? Put a **missing person** notice on the newspaper?"

"For some reason, I think this Breslin person is just like Zackline. And I doubt Zackline would read newspaper. And we will have to contact the cops if we put this thing up. And I don't want to get into more troubles."

Janelle closed her eyes and wondered when would a person cross the alley and found a dead girl lying on the ground. That person would certainly call the police and there would be a great stir in the city the next day. Janelle could almost imagine the headline of the newspaper **LITTLE GIRL MURDERED IN ALLEY.**

"I guess we can only wait," Janelle sighed and closed her eyes. They lapsed into silence.

A few minutes later, they heard footsteps. The two sat up immediately.

Janelle switched off the light instantly, worried that the people outside could see the light from the bottom of the door and realized someone was inside. Then they heard a short conversation.

"Witch Girl is still here," an unfamiliar voice called out.

"So the Power Nemisises didn't return to her," Bob's voice rang, "goddamn, where are they?"

Jason made a silent thank to Janelle that she told him not to take away Zackline's body.

"Must be around. Let's go." The first voice replied.

"Who put you in charge?" there was an angry yell from Bob and there was a grunt of pain.

"On my words. Let's go, boys," Bob called out again and there was the sound of shuffling feet again. Soon, the noise faded and the Lamberts were left entirely alone.

The two stayed in the shop, which really was a risk. They had also taken Zackline's bag because there were quite a lot of useful items in it.

It was around dawn when a jogger noticed Zackline. His horrified scream woke Jason. (Janelle had no idea how could he fall asleep after so many happened) The police arrived four minutes later and the two Lamberts left the shop to watched what was going on. They decided not to tell the police what happened actually. If so few people on earth knew of this matter, they should let it remained as a secret.

Not surprisingly, the news of Zackline came out immediately in the next day. The two had gone to a few streets away to avoid the cameras so Bob wouldn't find them. They were also forced to leave the shop in the first three days when the alley was crowded with people.

They moved back to the shop on the fourth day, hoping Questilsa Breslin would come here to find out what exactly was going on. Their parents phoned them everyday, but they didn't pick it up. Better not to drag them into this unclear fuss.

They didn't have much to do as they waited for Breslin. They did not buy much food also, worried of the fact that they would run out of money soon. They had also noticed some footprints in the shop that was too small for an adult. But there was no way that children would run in here just to play. So it got to be Zackline's. She had also been in the shop before.

They lived in confusion for exactly one more week before things started to clear up.

It was night and both of them were sleeping. Then suddenly something grabbed Janelle's wrists. Before she recovered her wit, her wrists were already tied up behind her.

Her eyes flew wide and looked up at the attacker. The person's face was shielded with a hood like Zackline, but Janelle was sure that it was a girl.

The girl hissed, "what have you two done to Zackline?"

"Zackline? Who…"

The girl dragged Janelle to her feet and shoved her against the wall violently. Her wrists went numb when they hit the wall. The girl switched on the light and Janelle squirmed her eyes, getting use to the sudden burst of light. Then the girl leaned forward with the knife still on Janelle's throat.

"Tell me what had happened to Zacks," she hissed.

The girl's hood had fallen back and Janelle could see the face now. She was around Zackline's age, or older. The skin was sunburnt and scarred. Her eyes were stormy gray and murderous.

Janelle glanced at her brother. He was gagged and his wrists and ankles were bound together. No help.

She looked back at the girl.

"You are Questilsa Breslin," Janelle suddenly realized.

"Yes, I am," Questilsa Breslin nodded. "Who are you two, then? My friend died a few yards away from where we now are and you are in the place where she used to hide in. You also have her bag over there," she pointed without looking. "So, what are you two?"

Janelle stared at Questilsa Breslin. It seemed that Questilsa cared a great deal about her friend. Janelle hoped they could trust her.

"My name is Janelle Lambert and this is my brother, Jason. We don't know what is going on exactly, but we are Power Nemisises."

The knife jerked in Questilsa's hand. It almost impaled Janelle accidentally, "prove it."

"We cannot prove it, as Zackline didn't have time to explain. Which is why we are waiting for you to explain."

Questilsa's face was ghastly white, but she lowered her knife, "tell me everything."

So Janelle quickly filled her in, from the first time she saw Zackline to how did Zackline die for them.

When she was finished, Questilsa's hand shot to Janelle's throat and squeezed. Janelle gagged and pulled at Questilsa's hand but her grip was even stronger than the monsters that she had encountered before.

"So Zackline died for you two," she growled. "For two useless rats."

Janelle tried to push Questilsa away, but it was useless. So finally they found this Questilsa, and this Questilsa was here to kill them. Zackline died for them, and they were being killed by her friend.

Black spots danced in her vision. As if from a long distance, she heard Jason's muffled yell. She was aware that her lungs were screaming for air.

Then fresh air rushed into her lung. She fell on the floor, gasping and panting and holding onto her throat. Questilsa stood in front of her, her face still a mask of anger and disgust.

"I would love to kill you," Questilsa snarled, "but since you two are Power Nemisises and my sister decided to save you two's pathetic life by sacrificing her life, I can't dishonor her by murdering you two idiots. Follow me."

Questilsa turned around and stormed out of the room to the alley.

Janelle hurried to untie Jason. Once he had the gag out of his mouth, he spat, "I am not going anywhere with that ray of sunshine."

Janelle glanced outside, "I don't really think we have a choice."

"She tried to kill you, Janelle! Who knows if she would do it again… and this time really killing you? This girl is crazy, Janelle. She is nothing like Zackline. Zackline was crazy, but she was good. Questilsa… she is evil! You can see it in her eyes!"

"If we stay here, Bob will find us eventually and kills us," Janelle said sadly.

"We survive on our own for a week. We can…"

"Jason," she squeezed his hand. "I know that you don't want to believe it – neither do I. But deep in your gut you do know that we have to go with Questilsa. She is our only chance."

Jason didn't say anything.

"Come on," she helped her up, "let's see what kind of person Zackline's friend is."

Questilsa barely glanced at them when they stepped out of the room. She started walking and the two jogged after her, recalling the bad memory of jogging behind Zackline.

"So… where are we going?" Janelle asked carefully.

"Sanctuary of Chaos. Where Zackline died taking you to," she replied coldly.

It made Janelle started to like Zackline's cold comments and death glares.

"Zack and I sent letters to each other every week," Questilsa started, "she went looking for Power Nemisises while I went looking for Unicorns. I learned some stuff in her letter. She wrote about you, Janelle Lambert. About Max and others things."

"What are Unicorns?" Janelle asked.

"Creatures that can make the Power Jerk has his physical body again," she paused. "Sorry, Power One. I'll explain later. But if the Power One got the Unicorns, we are all going to die. Like hell," Questilsa snapped and quickened her pace, leaving Janelle and Jason no choice but to run after her.

A few minutes later, Questilsa led them to a bar. Janelle didn't like the look of it as it looked more like a club. The kind of club with people dancing and with their hair dyed blue and pink and green.

The two followed her as closely as they could. It was very easy to lose themselves in this crowd with all those blue and red and yellow light flashing around, and they doubted Questilsa would turn around and go look for them like a gentle mama goat.

Suddenly Questilsa stopped and pointed. "There. Did you see that man?"

"The one who is trying to take his pants off?" Janelle frowned.

"Yeah. Him. Look at his eyes."

Janelle stared. He was a normal man and with normal brown eyes, "so? What's so special of him?"

"Concentrate on his iris. Try to make out all the details."

She glanced at Questilsa, but the girl was dead serious.

So Janelle stared at that man's iris. It was somehow hard to concentrate on them, but Janelle convinced herself that it was because he was moving all the time and showing his underpants to the horrified woman beside him.

Then Janelle found herself looking into the white of his eyes, not the iris.

She blinked and found the eyes normal brown again. Puzzled, she stared into them more intently.

At first they were very normal. But then the iris seemed to fade and disappeared, leaving his eyes complete white. No iris at all.

She blinked again and found the perfectly normal eyes again.

"I can't see anything," Jason complained.

Janelle eyed Questilsa warily, "what is that?"

"It is a Demon. The same species as your friend, Max. Not being a human, you should have notice Max wasn't a human."

"Wait, sis, you can see something wrong with that man?"

"Zackline kept saying we weren't human. I grasp that we are Power Ne…"

"Keep your voice down!" Questilsa hissed, "not here. Not that name. Let us go to somewhere safe first."

Jason muttered, "anywhere with you near isn't safe, bitch."

Questilsa's elbow drove back. Janelle managed to pull him out of the way, but it still hit his arm. He wheezed in pain.

"First lesson you learn from me, Jason Lambert. Never, ever insult me."

Jason seemed that he wanted to argue, but Janelle clamped a hand over his mouth and followed Questilsa as she weaved through the crowd until she reached the counter. "Hey."

A young man looked up at her, "yeah, girl?"

"Sanctuary of Chaos," she said firmly with another famous _Breslin- glare._

The man started, "there is no Sanctuary of…" his voice wavered when he met Questilsa's glare, "alright."

He left the counter and went to a red curtain that was hung in front of the wall. When he yanked it opened, there was a wooden door behind it on the wall. The young man took a set of keys that hung on his belt and unlocked the door.

"Remember to lock the door later," he told them flatly and left.

Questilsa nodded and pulled open the door. Behind it was the bars of a gate. After Questilsa yanked it opened viciously, she inclined her head at them to go in.

After Janelle stepped into the space behind the bars, she realized it was the kind of old elevator but instead of the huge metal doors, it was some gate.

Questilsa stepped in at last. She shut and locked the door and then pulled the gate back home.

Before Janelle knew, the elevator started to move. Janelle reeled back against the wall as the elevator shuddered and shook.

"Not an earthquake, right?" Janelle squealed.

"Ah, no. This happens whenever it moves," Questilsa replied mildly.

"Will this thing come apart?" she looked around the wooden elevator, which was full of webs and the wood was cracked.

"Well, this thing always breaks down, but it never has come apart in last few decades. Haven't killed someone for a few weeks already," Questilsa had also leaned back against the wall and smiled sourly at Janelle. "Sadly, it is the only way to the House of Chaos. Let's just hope it won't be us who die."

"Wow, very reassuring. You are truly a ray of sunshine. Thanks," Jason shut his eyes. Questilsa was so occupied by staring at the screeching gates that she didn't bother glaring back at Jason.

It was almost like a miracle when the elevator shuddered to a stop. Questilsa jerked open the door and the three surged out in relief.

"We are alive," Questilsa announced. "Come on."

Janelle looked around, "I see. We are in the Sanctuary of Chaos."

"Exactly," Questilsa agreed.

This place was huge and most of the color was gray – it reminded Janelle of the shopping malls, with a space like a pit in the centre and people from different floors can look down to the ground floor. They were at the ground floor now, which was something like a canteen with tables and chairs. There were many people, shrieking and fighting and throwing food at one another. There were also people lying on the floor, sleeping like a log. When Janelle looked up to the ceiling, she could see that it was gray, like everything else in this place. It also seemed very old, as if this place was at the edge of collapsing.

When she glanced at others upper floor, she noticed that it was also crowded with people. However, there was no railing and people sat there with their legs dangling in the air. Then a girl ran out and leapt into the open space.

Janelle stared in horror, wondering if she had time to race forward to catch her. Then she realized she didn't need to bother worrying. Another boy leapt out behind her and wings sprouted on his back. He flapped it and he was already beside the falling girl, his arms around her. Then they started making out in the air.

"Ugh," Jason muttered.

"They are Demons," Questilsa yelled at them over the noises and ducked a flying sandwich. "Come on."

She grabbed hold of the two's arms and led them to the mouth of a corridor. A few men were sitting on the floor, blocking the entrance. Only one man sat on a chair with a doll on his lap. Originally Janelle thought it might be his daughter's or something like that, but then she realized that he was using some markers to draw pictures on the lovely doll's face and started cutting its hair.

When he saw them, he grinned, revealing a set of golden teeth. "Hello, Miss Nameless. Long time no see."

"One room," she replied coldly.

A man that was sitting on the floor handed the man a thick book. The man on the chair scribbled something on it. "Hm. Room 7. 50 pieces."

Questilsa fished out some coins and pressed them into the man's hand. The man grinned and handed her a key. She snatched it away from him.

"You find yourself some friends, Nameless?" the man winked and Janelle, "they look hot."

"I have paid," Questilsa snapped.

"Ohhh. As boring as usual, Names," the man sighed and gestured at the men on the floor. They moved and allowed entrance for the three of them. Questilsa quickly shoved them towards the corridor.

The man smacked Janelle's butt when she passed by. "Nice ass, girl."

Jason raised his fist but Janelle grabbed his wrist, "don't bother. I doubt you have never hit girl's ass before besides me, Jason."

He flushed and hurried to the corridor. The man winked at her.

There were doors at the either side of the corridor. They were simple wood door and with a single but huge number written on it. The number was red and faded, reminding Janelle of blood.

"Nobody knows that man's true name, but he is known as Gold Tooth. The way they know me as Nameless," Questilsa told them.

"I so want to write a complain letter," Jason mumbled and Questilsa whirled on him.

"Yeah? This is a place for every single creature to take refugee, Jason Lambert. Not a place for sunbathing. If you aren't please with this place, get out of my sight now."

Jason shot a glare at Questilsa, which really wasn't a smart move. Questilsa's eyes narrowed and a Rune glowed on the back of her hand. Janelle didn't really notice it before. She didn't even notice she had Runes like Zackline.

But she guessed the glowing Rune didn't mean _say thank you and be happy._

"Uh, guys, let's just go to the Room 7?" she stepped between them.

Questilsa's eyes were still murderous, but she turned around and strode forward without a word.

"I don't…" Jason started muttering to Janelle, but Janelle shot him a glare that clearly meant _shut up._

"Fine," Jason rolled his eyes. "You got the potential to learn Sunshine's glare."

They got to the door with the huge 7 on it. Questilsa unlocked the door with the key that Gold Tooth gave her and pulled the door opened. Looking at the way the door hanging barely on its hinges, Janelle could only shake her head.

"Come on in. Inside isn't that bad," Questilsa went it first and the two followed.

Inside was indeed better than they expected. There were two single beds side-by-side and with one pressed against the wall. On the other side of the room was a table and two chairs, one broken. There was also a door leading to a private bathroom and surprisingly, the taps worked.

"You two take the beds and I will go grab some food," Questilsa told them and was gone in a flash.

Janelle and Jason stared at each other.

"I hate this Witch," Jason pointed out.

"Well, we are alive so far," Janelle replied.

Jason sighed, "I need to use the toilet."

"What sort of answer is this?"

After he was gone, Janelle sat down on a bed and leaned against the headboard. How complicated things had gone… she really wished she was back at home and watching TV with the AC on. She glanced around for the AC but of course, no luck.

A little voice spoke at the back of her mind. _But isn't this what you always want to? To go on an adventure and escape your boring and miserable life for once?_

 _Not in this way._ She argued.

 _If not in this way, in which way?_

 _I am not going to argue with myself like a madwoman._ She told herself and shut the voice out of her mind.

She took out her phone and stared at the millions of missed calls from her parents. She looked at the texts from her parents, all asking where the heck had she gone to.

She was tempted to reply. She wanted to hold them, to cry, to scream. She wanted someone to comfort her. Questilsa obviously wouldn't. And as for Jason… in this journey, it almost felt as if it was Janelle who was keeping the both sane and leading Jason to the right path. She couldn't count on him.

Soon, both Questilsa and Jason were sitting beside them. Questilsa had got each of them a sandwich.

"I think you owe us quite a lot of explanations, Questilsa Breslin," Janelle was tired of being scared of Questilsa. She was just going to speak how she felt like.

"I don't owe you. You two owe me your life," she replied.

"So firstly, what kind of place is this? Sanctuary of Chaos, I get this… but what is it?"

"It is built many years ago. Several decades, a place for three types of creatures to take refugee. Demon, Shaders, and LightSouls, though some human had started staying in here. Not exactly a safe place, but it is not easy to find us here," Questilsa started. She took off her jacket, revealing a head of short brown hair and arms full of faded Runes and zigzagging scars and wounds. "Demons… you know what it is. Max, Bob, and the flying creatures that are still probably making out outside," she made a disgusted noise. "And as for Shaders, they are two species that doesn't bother anything. Elves and Dwarves. They didn't harm people, but neither do they harm Demons. They belong to no sides."

"LightSouls… only three species. Witches, Power Nemisises and Unicorns."

"So we are finally here!" Jason cheered.

Questilsa shot him another death glare. Janelle silently promised herself that she would also learn this type of glare. It was really useful.

"LightSouls are the species that are always fighting against the Power One. Witches… there were five in the world, Zackline, me, and another three," her voice caught slightly on her dead friend's name. "Only four now. We are born to assist Power Nemisises. You two."

"Do you know the other three?" Janelle asked.

"I do know one, but… well, she is lost. Forget her," Questilsa waved her hand dismissively. "And the Unicorns…"

"Why not talk about Power Nemisises first?" Jason raised his hand.

"I guess you two will sort of go mad after you know what you are. So listen, moron," she snapped. "Unicorns are the tools that can heal the Power One. That jerk can only be raised after it drinks the blood of five Unicorns. There are rumors that if you kill one Unicorn, then another will pop up in the other side of the world. Which means five Unicorns will always remain in this world, no matter what. But that is only rumor. One is already being killed by the Power One. It died on the night Zacks found you two."

"That night…?" Janelle frowned. "The blinding light. I almost forget about it."  
"The world will explode into white blinding light when a Unicorn dies. Only Demons, Shaders and LightSouls can see it. So only four Unicorns will…"

"Then we must go look and protect them! What are we doing in here?" Jason exclaimed.

"You don't even know what exactly is the Power One, and you are so against it," Questilsa smirked and Janelle realized it was the first time she saw the Witch smiled. She actually looked quite pretty when she smiled. "Usually I was the one who went looking for the Unicorns while Zackline looked for you guys, Power Nemisises, but now I am burdened with both jobs," she sighed and glared at them pointedly as if it was all their faults, though some parts of it were really because of them.

"The Power One is really a jerk. An insane freak. It was born crazy like a few hundred years ago and its mother knew something was wrong and strangled it to death. She thought this would end everything, but it wasn't. Its spirit lingered even though and haunted its mother until she finally died of fear."

"Whoa. Badass. I like him," Jason muttered.

"You are the one who wanted to protect the Unicorns," Questilsa snapped again. "Its spirit continued to live and grow stronger. Most human's soul faded after they died, but… but it didn't. It fed on fear, fed on anguish, fed on chaos until it is now insanely powerful and sadly, insanely obsesses with power."

"Let me guess," Janelle raised an eyebrow. "And it wants to take over the world."

"Nah. Not exactly. It wants to have its body back now. But after it has his body back… I don't know, I really don't know. He never states his intention. And I am not really interested to see the jerk that killed its mother and drank fear like water to have its body back. Will be a bad thing."

"Yeah, especially when it sent its friends to kill us. What are we?" Janelle glanced at Questilsa.

She sighed. "Well, finally there. There is a prophecy when the Power Jerk was born. Probably one of the reasons why did its mommy decided to strangle it, as not every child was born with a scary woman standing beside them and sprouting a creepy prophecy. I don't know the exact words of the prophecy, but I know what it talks about. It is about five people that will stands together and destroy the Power One. Three males, two females. They all have a special power to themselves, but they are not strong when they are separated. However, when they are together… their strength is indestructible. These people are called the Power Nemisises."

Janelle jerked back. She knew that those five people means her and Jason and had been bracing for it, but when the words struck her, it was still shocking news. She glanced at Jason. His face was pale and his breath was ragged as if he had a heart attack. Janelle squeezed his hand.

"So… we are responsible to kill the Power One and save the world? That's why the Power One seems so pissed off with us?" she asked.

"Wow, you are quite calm to receive this news. And yeah, you are right. The Power One will try everything to kill you five."

"We are the youngest? Jason and I, are we the youngest among the five?"

"Ah. No. Jason is the oldest. You are the fourth."

"The First and Fourth. That is what Zackline called us."

"Yeah."

"That means… five children are born to oppose the Power One?"

"Yes, and that is also why you are called the Bane of Power. And as for the children part… maybe that's why five Witches are born to help you five. But you may no longer be a child when the Power One really struck at the human world. You may be adults by then. A decade… it is just a blink of eye for the Power One, considering that it is a thousand years old."

"Do you know where the remaining three are at?"

"Alas, no. Zackline only found you two while I found two Unicorns. That's all we got."

"Then the two Unicorns… where are they?"

"One is in Thailand while the other is in Egypt. I tried to bring them under control, but they are rather… self-protective. Violent. I barely survived," there was a slight tremble to her voice, but she pushed it down immediately.

"Any idea how to control them?"

"I heard that cutting off their horns will make them weaker, but I am not sure."

"Seems like the only option," Janelle glanced at Jason. She had been trying to focus on the subject of Unicorns to distract him, but it seemed no good. She sighed and turned back to Questilsa. "Questilsa… you said the five Power Nemisises each has a power. What are they?"

Questilsa sighed and stared at Jason, who was still clutching Janelle's hand as if his life depended on it. "Are you ready for this?"

He nodded slightly.

"The five each had a power. Jason, your power is that you are strong. Stronger than any living creatures in the world, stronger than King Kong," she smiled to herself as if she had shared a great joke. Both Lamberts' face remained unchanged. "Fine. You didn't get my humor. You can also be very fast and… actually, you are almost invincible when you are fighting. You rarely lose in any."

"And Janelle… your power… well…" Questilsa was almost stammering as if she was trying to avoid the answer. Janelle didn't exactly like her reaction. She would rather want her to be as straight as giving the answer to Jason.

"Janelle, you can control elements. Fire, earth, water, and air," when she saw Janelle's expressionless face, she continued. "Do you not understand? You can create storms, earthquakes, tsunami, volcano eruption… you can destroy the world, Janelle, with a flick of your finger."

Janelle didn't reply. She gazed at the wall beside her, her face and eyes completely blank. Then she ran her fingers over the place where she was gazing, as if drawing something.

"Janelle… she is sometimes like this," Jason told Questilsa. "When she receives something that makes her emotional… she sort of steps into a trance. Like this."

"So… did she ever like, scream, cry, laugh or something?"

"Laugh, yes. But scream and cry… never."

Questilsa looked at Janelle curiously. She must be a very strange girl, to step into a trance. But this was also a good thing if she was involved in the Power world. She wouldn't get scared, wouldn't break down. This would be good.

Finally Janelle looked back at the two. "So… anything else? Except that I am a freak more than I already thought myself is?"

Questilsa said sadly. "No."

"Then I will ask a question. The Power One asked Bob to bring me to a place, instead of killing me…"  
"The Operation."

"Yeah, explain that place later. If we are such a threat, the Power One would have Bob to kill Jason and me on sight. But instead, it wanted us captured. Why…"

"Ah, I see your question. I aren't sure, but I guess that… hm. When the Unicorns die, there will be a burst of light and another will appear at the other side of the world. You five have never been killed before, and the Power One cannot risk something like the Unicorns to happen to you five. So instead he decided to keep you guys captured when he did bad things outside. And as for the Operation… it is a damn place. Like the headquarters of the Power One. Crowd with Demons and some human too, who decide to side with the Power One. Not surprising if he wanted to have you two captured in there."

"Do you think it is possible that it has got others three at there?" Jason suddenly asked.

"It is possible… but I won't burst in there unless I am a hundred percent sure. I have been there before and… no. I don't want to be there again."

"Horrible place?" Janelle guessed.

"No. Security is too good. You can go in, but there is no going out. I nearly got myself killed when I escaped there," Questilsa sighed.

"Then we will go look for the Unicorns," Janelle said firmly. "And cut off its horn. Is it?"

"Yes," Questilsa felt that this Janelle girl could be a great leader some day. "But not now. You guys need to learn how to use some weapons before we go."

"Training?" Janelle scowled.

"Training," Questilsa smiled wickedly.


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

"Survive on either one. Strength or Speed."

"Strength can make your opponent fear you and you can take the chance to be aggressive and offensive. Speed can help you duck, block and kill. When you fight, let the blade be you. Your brain doesn't send signals to the hand to _control_ the blade. The blade _control_ your hand while your brain concentrated on your opponent's weakness, and tricks to defeat him."

Questilsa had thought Janelle and Jason would be stupid and wouldn't know how to wield a weapon.

But it wasn't.

The warrior blood must be flowing in the veins. Once she taught them the basics, they could already use a blade as if they had practiced for a few months.

Questilsa didn't say anything, not even a single compliment. But she envied them that they could fight so well. A few years later, they would outmatch her.

Jason turned out that he was great in using a sword. Each of his strike was powerful and fast. And as for Janelle, though she wasn't as talented as Jason, she could even fight better. Why? It is because Jason was a dumbass.

Janelle used a knife but she was very cunning. Her slashes could make you dizzy and the next thing you knew was that she already had the knife to your chest.

Questilsa had let the two fought. Janelle almost won every time, but most of her moves were faked. If Jason was a little brighter, then there was no way Janelle could defeat him. She always avoided real head-on- head strikes, because she knew she wasn't strong enough. And Jason didn't even notice.

And meanwhile, the two learned more about the Power Nemisises. The second oldest one would be a boy with the power to turn into anything. The third one was a girl with mind-power. She could dig into your mind and do quite a lot of horrible things in there. Janelle was kinda scared of her.

Then the youngest one was a boy, with the power which seemed to be opposite to Janelle. He could control anything but fire, air, earth and water. He might lift things with his will power and Janelle wondered if he could make the insides of a human exploded.

"No," Questilsa replied. "The body of a living thing is sacred. Nobody can control it."

"I thought it would be nice if we could fly around. I don't think the air is strong enough to support us, huh?"

"Well, you can actually lift someone up with a hurricane, but you cannot like… control your flight. But I have been thinking that if the Fifth can control the material of clothes, then maybe he can yank you into the air, if the fabric doesn't tear and leave the person falling to the ground and flailing crazily, naked…"

At any rate, a week later, Questilsa decided that they were ready.

It was June already. Questilsa had gave Janelle a black tank top and black pants.

"Can't I wear shorts?" Janelle stared at the rough material of the pants.

"No. And trust me. These pants are going to save you someday," she smirked.

Janelle also found that Questilsa wasn't that horrible. Too grim and scary, but otherwise she was alright. She was just in a bad mood when she found the Lamberts as her best friend had just died for them.

But she wasn't nice to Jason. She distasted his idiotic and immature behavior. She expected him to take care of his little sister, to stay strong for both of them. But instead, Janelle did it and sometimes even needed to pat and soothe him. Questilsa also disliked his sarcastic remarks towards her. It would be good if Jason just accepted her screams. But Jason wasn't weak. He was proud and would always snap back at Questilsa. And poor Janelle, always feeling as if she was standing between two missiles that were about to be fired.

Janelle also wondered how did Questilsa manage to stay so calm after the abruct death of her best and only friend. But one night Janelle woke up somewhere between late at the night or early in the morning, she saw Questilsa sitting in the chair, clutching a few photos in her hand. Her head was bowed and Janelle realized that she was crying. But then Questilsa must have sensed something as she whipped around to look at her. Janelle shut her eyes immediately, knowing it wouldn't be good if Questilsa found her watching.

But she couldn't help wondering what the photos were.

So, anyway, they were leaving.

The Witch went out to return the keys to Gold Tooth first. When Janelle finished packing her stuff and approached Questilsa and Gold Tooth, Janelle caught a few words.

"…. Witches…. Tell Power Bane…. Manhattan…"

Questilsa straightened up when she saw Janelle. "Come on. Time to go."

"To where?" Jason hurried to them.

"To Thailand first," Questilsa smiled.

"Great. Thailand should be around 50 oC right now," Jason grumbled.

"You can stay here if you desire to. Janelle and I will be going anyway."

Jason muttered something under his breath and followed.

"So are we going to take a plane to Thai? I don't think we have enough money," Janelle inquired.

Questilsa winked at her. "This is the Sanctuary of Chaos, and this place is built with magic. Quite a huge spell, actually. You can get in here from USA, but a few hours walk in here, you pop up in China."

"Whoa."

"Yeah, and this is one of the reasons why I brought you here, although this place is crowded with demons. This is really convenient to escape with this entire popping system."

"Will the demons be like – guarding every single exit?"

"For sure, yes. That's why we will have to make a run for it," Questilsa shrugged as if it was no big deal.

They stopped at some sort of street sign and a _you are here_ model. Arrows were pointing at different directions.

"Left: Candy Shop, West. Right: East and Jewellery Shop… a jewellery shop in Sanctuary?" Janelle scowled.

"This place is insane, I assure you."

"And straight ahead is… Fabulousy Death?" Jason asked.

"No. Some crossed out the _Fabu_ and added a _y_ at the end. So it is _lousy death,"_ Janelle pointed out and glanced at Questilsa.

"A crazy death match, that's all," Questilsa headed right. "Those inane and poor demons – they go there for a fight and gambling and stuff. If you win, you get enough money to last a few decades. If you lose…"

"Let me guess. Death," Janelle interrupted.

"Yep."

"A fight to death. Cool. I am going to watch it later," Jason's eyes gleamed.

"Don't you dare, Jason Lambert," Questilsa glared at him

"It's not like you can stop me."

She stopped at a sign that wrote _Going to Asia? STRAIGHT AHEAD!_

After a few hours of walking, Jason asked. "So where are we going? Thailand is a huge place. We…"

"Phuket. The Unicorn is on an island. Hiding among the trees up on a mountain."

Around an hour later, they got to another horrible escalator and again held their breaths when the escalator shuddered. The managed to survive it again and spilled out from the escalator quickly. The escalator decided taking a little tumble afterward. Jason barely managed to lung forward from it when it dropped into the darkness below.

"Oops," Janelle winced.

"We will be a hundred percent dead if we stay there a second later," Questilsa shook her head and pulled them aside when some people rushed forward to mend the escalator. "Come on."

They had ended up in a bar again, similar to the one in America. But now, they noticed that there were more people with brown skin here and they knew they were really in Thailand. Around four to five hours of walk, and they had traveled halfway across the world already.

When they stepped out, a wave of heat hit them. This place was as hot as lave.

"Around 40oC, I guess?" Questilsa had changed into a thin shirt but still with long sleeves. She couldn't show her marks to the normal human around.

"You said there would be monsters here to catch us. But there aren't any," Janelle lowered her voice.

"I do notice a few staring at us when we got out of the escalator. But they didn't come to eat us… so they must have forgotten this exit."

It was clear that Questilsa was reassuring herself rather than reassuring Janelle.

Questilsa actually prepared something that they weren't aware of. A few minutes later, a man walked up to them. He was young, only a few years older than Jason. He grinned at them. "Hello, Ques."

"Jack," she greeted him. "These are the friends I told you – Jason and Janelle. Guys, he is Jack, a werewolf."

Janelle's eyes snapped up to him. He looked normal at first, only a little wild. Then she noticed his eyes were slightly yellow.

"May I ask which of you is Jason and which of you is Janelle?" he scowled.

Janelle glanced at Questilsa, but she wasn't looking at them. She squeaked at Jack. "Uh… I am Janelle. He is Jason."

"Oh, I thought the other way round," he frowned. "Never mind. Get in my truck!"

His truck was a seven-people truck. The siblings got to the back as they were quite unsure of this werewolf. Questilsa got to the midde.

Janelle leaned forward and whispered soft enough to Questilsa so there was no way Jack could hear her.

"A Werewolf is a Demon, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then why are you trusting him?"

"It is because," Jack suddenly spoke, "I own Questilsa a huge debt—" he chuckled when he saw Janelle's face reddening. "—Werewolves' hearings are crazy. I couldn't say no if she ask me for help. And don't worry, Jason. No offend taken."

"I am Janelle."

Jack grinned.

A few hours later, they got to a beach. Jack pointed. "There's my boat."

It was the sort of boat that looked like it was about to break apart, which made Janelle think of a particular escalator.

"Thanks, Jack. You are the best," Questilsa got off the truck and forced a smile at him. The Werewolf winked back and left, leaving the three staring at his truck and with all those dust rolling behind it.

"How are we going to get to it?" Janelle turned back to the boat. It was almost three hundred yards from the shore.

"If you get your power Triggered, then you can just drag it here with willpower. But now…" she sighed and kicked off her boots. "Swim."

So they stuffed all their shoes and jackets and stuff into Zackline's bag. It was really cool, as you could put as much thing as you wanted to in it but it wouldn't even get heavy or bigger. You don't see anything when you look in, but when you concentrate on the thing you want, it would materialize into the bag. Questilsa also got one of these bags and she told them that this thing was even water-proof.

So the three waddled into the water. It was amazing to feel so cool again when they had been sweating like crazy all the time. Being the shortest one, Questilsa was the first one whose head ducked under the water. She started swimming and Janelle immediately knew if Questilsa went to school, she definitely would be the school's best swimmer.

Very soon, they managed to the boat. Janelle and Jason couldn't pull themselves up, so Questilsa got in first (this Witch really got incredible strength) and pulled the two out of the water.

When they dried themselves, they glanced at the equipments of the boat. They seemed fine alright, but…

"Is this boat built in the World War II?" Jason inquired.

"No. I think is World War I," Janelle replied.

"No. It is in the 19th century. It was fixed again and again. This thing was passed down to Jack by his great great grandfather," Questilsa bent down and managed to start the engine. "Or great great great grandfather. Something like that. I wasn't sure."

"You know how to sail a boat? Is there anything you don't know?" Jason demanded.

Questilsa didn't reply, but Janelle swore she could see the other girl smiling.

"Don't forget that she was already twenty," Janelle whispered to Jason.

"No. I am twenty-one," Questilsa called out.

"I am already sixteen," he pointed out.

"Then this is your problem."

Questilsa finally managed to move this wreck a few minutes later. Then they happily went to the endless sea.

They sailed for a few hours. Questilsa was completely concentrating on using this wreck. For a few times Janelle noticed Questilsa's brow squirming together in confusion, but then they would loosened up again in a _let it go_ way as she started going to some direction again.

When she saw an island, Janelle could read the relief off her face. "We are here!"

So she pulled the boat over and they again swam to the land. It was a normal beach with people sunbathing, swimming and children building sandcastles. It was so normal that Janelle almost felt she was going on a holiday with her family.

Speaking of her family… she wondered how were her parents now. They must have freaked out.

Questilsa seemed to have read the expression out of Janelle's face. "Memory won't do you any good. Look into the future and live on. There is no point worrying for others when you cannot even survive for yourself."

Janelle glanced at Questilsa, but the other girl had looked away already.

They got to the trees behind the beach and soon they found themselves walking in a wood. They tried to go straight ahead instead of going off track, but it wasn't easy job. Luckily Questilsa had enough experience to lead them to the right path.

They must have spent hours staggering forward and smacking mosquitoes when a voice rang. "No don't you dare."

They looked up and found another girl looking at them. She was young, maybe fifteen. Her brown hair was plaited into many thin braids. She wore a sleeveless white dress and was barefeet. And yet her golden eyes were murderous.

"What?" Jason scowled. They hadn't see any person in the last hour and they didn't expect a girl to appear in front of them and started glaring at them.

"You will not go up to the mountain and drag the Unicorn with you. Absolutely. Not. Go. Back. Now."

Questilsa's eyes narrowed. "You are an Elf. One of the Shaders."

"And you are a Witch. With two Power Nemisises. Yeah, I see it too. But the point is, when will you two get the hell away from here?"

"What's your name?" Janelle couldn't help smiling.

The girl, or rather, the She-Elf glared back at Janelle. "Kate."

"So, Kate," Questilsa tried to smile. It didn't really work. "We are here to find the Unicorn and protect it. We…"

"Jet has lived here for years and still hasn't been attacked. You will only attract an awful lot of demons with you. Go go go go go go go!"

"Jet?" Jason frowned.

"The Unicorn's name, idiot. Off you go!"

"I thought Elves are centrist?" Janelle asked.

"We once were, but Jet managed to convince us to help it. Especially after those demons killed my parents," Kate said bitterly. Then she glared up at them again. "When are you going to leave?"

"You are scared," Jason burst out.

"I am not scared!" Kate protested.

"Nah. We are not blind. We can see the tension of your shoulders, the quaver of your voice and the fear in your eyes," Questilsa said flatly. "Should I mention the other part of your posture too?"

"Take a step forward, and I will scream! If I scream, my kin will come here at once and kill you!" she yelled.

Janelle frowned. "How many?"

"Around twenty, I guess. It is usually like that," Questilsa replied.

"I think we can…"

Kate suddenly tensed. "I smell demons."

"What?" Janelle whirled around.

"Around a mile away. You lead them here! Goooooooooo!" the She-Elf started screeching again.

"But…" Questilsa's face was a mask of confusion.

"Questilsa," suddenly Janelle understood all. Everything came to sense. She caught Questilsa's sleeve, who flinched at the touch. "Do you remember when I ask you why was no demon waiting for us when we arrived at Thailand? Of course they didn't grab us immediately. They knew we were either heading for another Power Nemisises or an Unicorn. So they simply follow us and wait until we found what we are seeking for. Then they can just snatch it from us!"

"Goddamn," Questilsa cursed. "We will lead them to this Unicron, Jet! What can…"

"Go away! And take those filth somewhere else!" Kate yelled.

"Too late now. They will march up to the mountain to find Jet, us or not. We have to…"

"Take Jet with you and run? No chance at all."

"Kate, please. We are Power Nemisises. We will protect Jet with our lives," Janelle promised.

Kate hesitated. "But…"

Questilsa bolted past Kate.

"Hey! Come back, you…" Kate shrieked when Janelle and Jason followed her. Kate chased after them, screaming curses at them.

"As I remember, we should take the left turn first, not…"

Kate grabbed Janelle's arm. Janelle's hand went to her knife, preparing to fend the She-Elf off.

"Don't use that pointy thing on me!" Kate let go of Janelle. "Go right. Not left. Jet is that way."

Questilsa stopped and eyed Kate warily. "And you are helping us now?"

"Do I have a choice? Jet is going to get captured in either way. LightSouls or Demons. I would rather let it be you three. Come after me."

She sprinted off, her feet soundless against the ground. The three quickly followed her. They could hear distant yells now. The demons were close, and were rather impatient to kill Jet. She took different turns without any hesitation and ducking into quiet corners. They even had to go through two caves. They would have never managed to where Jet was if without Kate's help.

When they got to the end of a cave, Kate straightened up. "We are here."

It was the scent of water that hit Janelle first. Water was supposed to have no smell… but she could feel it. It was not salty. It was clear fresh water that flowed in streams, as cold as ice. It made her think of fresh oxygen.

When she looked around, she couldn't help a little gasp. The grass on the ground was mint green and as soft as marshmallow. Around was trees with fruits on them, and Janelle realized with a start that it was actually the first time she saw an apple tree. A thin stream flowed on the ground and she could see fish swimming in it. There were the tweets of birds all around. Janelle felt as if she had stepped from hell to the beautiful paradise in fairytales. All she wanted was to lie down and close her eyes. Even Questilsa was speechless, just gazing around.

Kate was simply looking around curiously. "Jet should be around here. I guess he had hidden himself up. Jet! JET!"

They spent a few minutes searching for the Unicorn, but it was nowhere to be seen. Janelle started to grow worry, knowing the demons might arrive at any moment.

Questilsa grabbed Janelle all in a sudden. "When you saw Jet, ride away with it immediately. Tell it you are a Power Nemisis. Can you do it? To abandon Jason and me?"

"I… I don't know," she hesitated. "But… Ques, why don't you tell Jason, he…"

"I trust you more than that idiot. Can you?"

She nodded. "I can."

"Good," Questilsa turned away and went looking for Jet again. Then Janelle noticed she had called Questilsa _Ques_ but she didn't protest at all.

Then she noticed something.

Janelle lunged forward and tackled Kate, who was near to her, onto the ground. A spear sailed over their heads.

Instinctively, Janelle shot to her feet, her knives in her hand already.

Figures swarm around them. It was only moments before they were completely surrounded. Janelle gave a quick estimation and guessed there were around fifty to sixty of them. No way that they could defeat so many. She saw a purple monster in armor. Bob, grinning down at them.

Jason swore.

"Oh, hello, my friends," it opened its arm.

"There is no friend of yours here," Questilsa had a pistol in her hand, the barrel aimed towards Bob's heart.

"Bullets cannot do any harm to my armor. It is made of…"

As if to prove the point, a spear hit its chest and knocked it on the ground. It cried out, but more in surprise other than pain. Then it climbed to its feet. Its eyes went to Kate, whose arm was still holding out, the perfect position of a javelin throw.

"Ah, She-Elf. Thought you weren't fighting for any side," it smiled. "And now, my friends – my real friends, not you four freaks – kill them!"

Janelle immediately knew there was no way to defeat the Demons. There were too many of them, and except Questilsa and possibly Kate, they were still inexperienced in fighting.

Janelle remembered Jason's face when he first killed a soul. She spoke to herself firmly. "You can do it, Janelle Lambert."

She glanced at Questilsa, who had two long swords in her hands. Zackline had fought to her death for them, alone. Janelle was determined that she wouldn't let Questilsa got to the same fate as Zackline.

She was sure of it. First it was a burst of guilt, then anger, and finally a burst of fierce energy.

Janelle yelled and suddenly, the hilts were comfortable in her hands. She slashed at a wide arc, making the approaching demons stumbled back. One struck at her and she caught the strike, pushing it back. She ducked when a spike flew beside her, missing her head narrowly.

She thrust out and her knife found its target. She shuddered a little when she found her knife sinking into the flesh of a wide-eyed Demon. The blade scraped its bones. She jerked the knife back and the Demon fell on the ground, dead.

She took a deep breath. No time to feel guilty for killing someone. If she didn't kill it, it would kill her friends and her. She started slashing around wildly, her knives somehow managing to find their targets easily with each strike. Janelle knew it was because of her blood, what she was born to be. She pushed down the bad feeling at the back of her mind, destroying so many lives so heartlessly. But she had no choice.

And she knew it was just the start of her real life.

After a few minutes, she found herself back to back with Jason.

"You got it?" she asked.

"Alive so far," he grunted as he slashed another demon apart. She noticed him wincing.

"Go find Jet!" Questilsa yelled to them. She herself was a blur, flashing everywhere at once. The Demons didn't even have time to protect themselves. She was a much more better fighter than Zackline.

Janelle grabbed Jason's shirt. "C'mon!"

"Where?"

"Anywhere!"

The two charged like devils and cut their way out of the mob. It wasn't exactly easy, but somehow they found themselves hiding in behind some trees.

Jason exhaled deeply but Janelle suddenly tugged at his sleeve.

He saw her eyes fixed on something. He followed her gaze and his breath caught.

A few trees away from them stood a white horse, its head peeking out from behind the trunk and staring at the battle.

A single horn stood on its forehead.

"Jet?" Janelle called out softly.

The Unicorn jerked back and stared at the siblings. Its eyes were golden, but was also filled with absolute fear.

"We are Power Nemisises, we won't hurt you. We are here to…" Janelle continued but Jet suddenly charged, its horn going straight for them.

The two barely managed to throw themselves aside. The Unicorn pawed at the ground, preparing for the second offense.

 _I tried to bring them under control, but they are rather… self-protective. Violent. I barely survived._

Janelle decided to use another term. Untamed.

Jet seemed to have noticed the weapons in their hands. It turned and bolted towards the wood behind them.

"NO! Jet, come back!" Janelle knew there was no time. There was no way they could keep up with its insane speed. A few more seconds, and they were going to lose it forever.

She grabbed Jason and yanked his gun out of his pocket. She had never used a gun before, and she silently prayed that part of her blood could help her in using one.

She aimed and fired.

She had been expecting for it to recoil, but it was much stronger than she thought. She dropped the gun instantly, holding her wrist and for a moment, she wondered if it had dislocated.

Then she heard to horrible screech of Jet.

She couldn't see it, but she knew her hit had found its way home. She scrambled up to follow Jet but stopped when she saw Jason following her.

"Go help Questilsa. Go!" she shooed him away. He hesitated for a while, then hurried away.

Janelle ran towards where Jet had disappeared. She saw silver blood on the ground, and then a white cone on the ground. She knelt down and picked it up, wondering where had Jet gone to.

Then she heard something. Some tiny movements.

She spinned around and drove the horn into the Demon's chest. She watched it fell in satisfactory but suddenly two hands grabbed her around the chest from behind. She screamed and thrashed, but then another Demon appeared from nowhere and grabbed her neck.

She reached behind and grabbed the arm of the Demon who was holding her from behind. She used its body to push herself off against and leapt up. Her feet slammed into the chest of the Demon in front of her, who staggered away. But the Demon behind her lost its balance when she slammed against it and it fell, dragging Janelle down with it. When they hit the ground, it pinned Janelle's arms to her sides, making her scream in a very impolite way.

The Demon which she had kicked was now advancing at her. Her friends were all away and though she was armed, she couldn't use her stupid weapons. She struggled and yelled, wondering if her friends could hear her. She doubted it, with all the noises they were making in the battle. And even if they heard her, she would be dead when they arrived.

The Demon grinned at her. Something silver hit it from behind, and it drew back a gasp.

Jet sprang again, and it screamed and fell on the ground, motionless.

Janelle ripped her arms from the Demon's grip at this moment of distraction. She rolled away and saw Jet sinking its teeth into its throat. She saw a spasm going through its body, then it fell limp.

She stared at the Unicorn, who stared back at her.

"You alright?" someone asked her. The voice was strange, as if the voice was bubbling underwater.

She glanced behind her but found no one behind her. Who was talking?

"Hello. I am standing right here."

She stared at the Unicorn, which had its head tilted, its eyes full of puzzlement.

Unless…

"No way. It can't be the Unicorn speaking to me," she said aloud.

"Why can't it?"

She jerked back. No way. It is just a stupid horse with white mane. How can it talk…

 _Excuse me. I AM NOT A STUPID HORSE WITH WHITE MANE._

Janelle finally realized why was the voice strange to her. The voice was in booming inside her mind instead of coming from her ears.

She shuddered. "You can read my thoughts?"

The Unicorn nickered. A laugh, she guessed. _Yeah, I can. Ya a Power Nemi?_

She nodded.

 _I am Jet. I have lot to tell you, but first we gotta get out of here. We also needa find Katherine. She will be in great trouble when her family finds out…_

"Katherine?"

 _Kate._ Somehow Janelle could mentally receive the annoyance from the Unicorn. _We better get going. Your friends are in trouble. There are an awful lot of Demons over there._

"You can see?"

 _I am a Unicorn. I can see many things. Now… ah, wait, wait, wait. Get on my back. Quickly._

Janelle didn't ask. She climbed on Jet's back and realized there was no saddle. "But…"

"You don't need it," then it spurred off.

She yelped and grabbed onto the mane at the back of its neck. A few moments later, she found herself at the roots of a huge tree.

 _Saw the big gap between those two rods? Put your hand in it and take out whatever that is inside._

Janelle swallowed down the fear of some scorpions or hairy spiders or colorful snakes inside. She jumped down from Jet and put her hand down. Instantly, she felt the smooth surface of a cloth. She wrapped her hand around it and realized it was silk, wrapping around something hard and thin. She pulled it out and looked at it.

It was like a package, though very thin but long.

Jet urged her. _Stare at it later. Go first! Get this thing somewhere else!_

She shoved it into Zackline's magic bag and jumped on Jet. Jet zipped forward and Janelle almost fell off Jet. She felt wind peeling at her face and Jet's impatient words. _Grab your longest weapon!_

Janelle unsheathed her sword just as Jet dove into the crowd of Demons. Janelle held out her sword and the sword sliced all the enemies in sight as Jet ran. They tried to shoot them but they were too fast and the Demons couldn't find the target. They tried to stab them, but Janelle cut their head off first. In a few minutes, all Demons lay dead around them. Janelle noticed Bob wasn't one of them. So somehow, it had sneaked off again.

Janelle slipped down from Jet and suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. She had been too concentrate in all the killing and when everything suddenly came to a stop, she couldn't help feeling as if she was going to faint.

"Nice work, sis," Jason clapped Janelle's shoulder.

"KATHERINE!"

Kate flinched beside them. She had a dagger in her hand, which was also black with blood. Her white dress was now spotted black. And her face turned ashen white when she heard her name.

Around thirty other people appeared and a man was staring at her in disbelief. "Katherine, why did you…"

"I can explain, sir," she quickly said. "I…"  
"I don't want to listen to excuse! You lead someone here! My kin, kill the traitor!"

"Please, just a minute, and I can tell you everything…"

"No excuse! Where is my bow? Someone brings me my bow!"

 _Get up!_ Jet yelled.

"We can't all fit on you!"

 _Yes you can! Come on!_

There was no time for explanations. Janelle leapt onto the Unicorn, deciding to believe it. "Everyone aboard!"

A few moments later, they were all behind her. Don't ask Janelle how did four people manage to fit on a horse. She had no idea.

Jet bolted before Kate's family could kill her. It blurred forward and Janelle found themselves approaching a cliff.

"Jettttttttttt!" she screamed.

Jet threw themselves off the cliff.

Janelle screamed and clutched to the Unicorn. Then surprisingly, two white wings sprouted from its back and flapped. They soared up to the air and then they were flying away from this island.


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

It was sort of surprising in Jason's eyes.

But first, of course, it was awesome to fly on the back of a Unicorn in the middle of the night.

But the surprising thing was another thing. Kate had been sitting behind Janelle ever since they got on Jet, the part-time Pegasus's back. They two girls engaged in deep conversation in a matter of minutes and Jason heard them talking something about _One Direction._ Jason didn't exactly know what _direction_ it is, but he remembered Janelle gibbering something about a few hot singers when they were still at home. He guessed those _directions_ weren't girls, then. Janelle was straight, last he checked.

Jesus, how could someone talks stuff like these on a Unicorn's back and with a pack of Demon and angry Elves screaming at them?

Kate wasn't all pleased that she was now forced to leave her kin. She had listened to Janelle's explanation and decided to help them instead of going to seek another family.

"If you are going to help those poor Unicorns, then I am helping you. I am not going to help that blasted Dark Lord, curse that filthy little piece…" after a few more swearing words, she changed into another language, no doubt the _scary-cursing-words-of-Elf-tongue._

Jet made some neighing sound and Janelle chuckled. "Not that you are weak, Jet."

"That thing can talk?" Jason scowled.

Jet jerked his head back at Jason and make some rather scary sound.

"Uh… just… his name is Jet," Janelle grimaced.

"So you can talk to him?" Questilsa raised as eyebrow.

"Yeah… can you not hear?" Janelle frowned.

"Jet can only speak to the one who Tame it," Kate spoke in a way that the capitalization of _Tame_ is very clear.

Jason glanced at Questilsa, hoping for an answer. But obviously she didn't understand too, as her brows were also screwed together, and he guessed his brows were pretty much the same way.

Jet was making soft neighing sound to Janelle, who was also listening silently. Kate was making no attempt to explain to Jason and Questilsa and was playing with one of her braids unconsciously.

Then Janelle straightened up and turned back to Jason and Questilsa. "Jet just told me everything. He said that when a Unicorn's horn was cut off, then the blood in its body was useless in raising the Power One again. This horn-cutting process is called Taming. And if the Unicorn dies afterwards, no other Unicorn will pop up. Which means the Unicorn sort of change into a normal horse, or, uh, Pegasus," Janelle glanced at the silver wings beside her. " So…"

"We just got to cut off the horns of all five Unicorns. Then the Power One cannot be raised," Questilsa smiled.

"Yes, but only a Power Nemisis can cut off its horn. If other races… well, no harm will be done," Janelle's voice quavered for a moment, as if she still wasn't used to the fact that she wasn't a human. "But, anyway, a Power Nemisis can only cut a horn once. Which means I cannot cut it off again. It will be Jason's."

Questilsa nodded and suddenly Jason noticed that her face was very pale. Her teeth were also gritted and her face was contracted in pain.

"Questilsa? You okay?" Janelle also noticed this.

Questilsa made a sour face. "Just land quickly."

Jason grabbed Questilsa's arm, who shot him a dirty look. He stared at her left forearm, near her wrist. Only under the dim light of the moon, he could see red blood soaking through the sleeve and blood was trickling down her hand. The dark red liquid had dripped onto the white mane of Jet already. She had been cradling her wounded arm to her chest so nobody could see it.

"You idiot. Why didn't you tell us?" Jason couldn't help it.

"Just a little thing. Don't want you guys to get all worried about me and delay our escape. Also," her dark eyes narrowed, "did you call me idiot?"

"Uh… can I say no?"

Janelle decided to save him. "We are landing. Hold on tight!"

A few minutes later, they landed on a little island. The island was small enough that nobody was near. They got on the little beach and once all four of them slid off the horse, everyone crowded around Questilsa. She rolled her eyes when they saw their concerned expressions.

But when she pushed up her sleeve, they all drew back. The wound was much worse than how she let it on. The cut was rather deep, like an angry red snake and seemed almost bone-deep. Although they had been flying for almost half an hour, the bleeding still hadn't stopped.

"God, Questilsa, you…" Janelle shook her head.

"Do you have Jet's horn?" Kate asked.

Confused, Janelle took it out from her belt.

Kate took it from her hand. The horn was now covered with dried silver blood. The She-Elf raised the horn over Questilsa's wound and took out a little dagger from nowhere. She started scraping the powder from the horn and let the powder fell on the red welt. The instant the silver powder touched the red line, the line started folding on itself.

"Whoa," Jason's eyes widened.

"Yeah, I like it," Kate watched as the red snake turned into a red worm and into a pink thread and into nothing. For the first time, Jason noticed that her ears were pointy. _Elf._

Jet neighed beside them and Janelle smacked her own forehead. "Gods, I forgot it completely. Here."

She took out a long package from Zackline's magical bag.

Jason could feel something special about it. Something very powerful was inside it… like water trapped in a leather bag, but still, some water was leaking out.

When Janelle untied the strings that held it, Jason shrank back.

Janelle stared.

It was a Sword. Not a _sword,_ but a _Sword._

It was sheathed with a wood sheath. It was twisting around it in a simple way so that almost half of the silver blade was exposed. The blade was silvery cold like the moon in the sky, which also held the beauty and mysteriousness of the white jade mirror hanging in the air. Pale light was leaking out from the sheath, like water pouring over a dam.

Janelle slowly reached out and wrapped her fingers around the sheath. It was both smooth and rough to touch, not like any normal wood. Then her hand crept to the silver hilt. Even the slightest touch sent a bolt of power to her, trickling her fingertips and sent shivers down her spine, making her fingers jerked back. At the end of the hilt, which ended in a ball, Janelle could see something craved on it. A simple letter _j._

She pulled.

The blade swept out, free from its sheath. More silver light spilled out. One side of it was completely smooth, like the beautiful surface of a crystal. And of the other side, a word was craved into it near the hilt.

Aklasava

Janelle touched the blade with trembling hands. It was cold and smooth, as she thought. As she studied it, she could see that it was very thin, as thin as a piece of paper. She was sure the edge could cut through a metal bar like butter, as well as a streak of thin, thin hair. The tip was deadly sharp. She couldn't even see where the blade ended and could almost see mist swirling around the tip.

"What's it?" she breathed.

 _Aklasava._ Jet told her. _It means elements in the language of LightSouls. You._

 _I don't…_

 _You control elements, Janelle. You control_ aklasava. _This sword – you will need it to destroy the Power One. Each of you five will have a Sword. You will need to go to the very heart of the Power One, and you will have to put the tips of all of your swords together. Then there will be an explosion – and the Power One will be killed._

 _Then why not just pile some explosive there… ah, never mind._ Janelle stopped herself when she saw Jet's eyes. Those golden eyes of the Unicorn… it seemed so strange, like the eyes of horses. And yet you could see pain, wisdom in it. _The eyes of an aged man._

Only then did she notice everybody else was staring at her. They did notice her talking to Jet telepathically and didn't interrupt their conversation.

Janelle stared at the Sword in her hand again. Just the sight of it sent another surge of power into both her body and mind.

 _Aklasava._

Her sword.

She smiled.

"So where are we going now? Where the next Unicorn is?" After explaining, Jason asked.

"Egypt. Though I aren't sure where exactly it is at," Questilsa replied.

 _I can sense the other one if I get near him. Don't worry._ Jet told Janelle.

Feeling awkward, Janelle told the others what Jet had said. Was she going to be the translator of Horse, or rather, Unicorn, ever since?

"Are we going there through the Sanctuary of Chaos?" Kate asked.

"No. It will be a long way to the nearest door. Jet, can you bring us to Egypt?"

Jet didn't say anything. The look in its eyes was clear enough: _yes._

"Good," Questilsa smiled. She was taking control over this stuff now, after all these mess. "Let's go."

Janelle nodded at stood up. Then she felt Jet suddenly jerking beside her, making a horrible shrieking sound.

"Jet?" she touched it. "What is…"

Then the world exploded into white light.

The second Unicorn was down.

It was really crowd on Jet's back, so they found a metal board and tied it behind Jet so two of them could stay on Jet's back while two could sit at the board. Janelle didn't know how did Jet managed to run on the surface of the sea, but somehow he managed and drag the board behind him. Janelle and Jason took Jet's back and Kate and Questilsa took the board. This thing couldn't help reminding Janelle of a reindeer pulling Santa Claus's sleigh across the snow. She tried to imagine Jet with a red nose and decided to shake off this image.

It took the fastest creature on earth five hours to reach Egypt.

They stopped in the middle of a desert.

"Where are we?" Janelle asked Questilsa.

"Don't ask me. I've never been to here," the Witch barked back.

"Can you sense the other Unicorn?" Janelle asked Jet.

 _Over the pyramids. I guess he is hiding in the pyramids._ He replied.

"Then where are we going?" Kate looked around.

"Go to the Nile, so we can at least know where we are going. Jet, can you hear where is the water?"

Jet didn't reply. It just sprinted towards left.

It wasn't long before Janelle realized that they were in trouble.

She heard Questilsa screaming. "Jet, RUNNNN!"

Jet glanced back. Then it broke into a run that almost thrown all four of them off its back.

Janelle looked back. Far behind them were some sort of monsters with four legs, sprinting towards them. Unicorns might be the fastest creature on the world, but Jet had spent hours running and was tired.

"Jet. Go right. RIGHT!" Questilsa suddenly screamed.

Jet didn't hesitate, it dove right and continued running, with lots of monsters at his heels.

"Jet, faster!" Jason yelled and kicked Jet's side lightly. Those monsters were already gaining on them, it it would be a matter of time before they overtook them.

 _Tell that asshole that I am running as fast as I can already!_ Jet snapped back.

"Jet… you are slowing down," Janelle looked around and realized that the blurring images around her started to clear.

 _Getting tired!_ Jet screamed. _I am still an animal!_

"Jason!" Questilsa suddenly yelled.

"Wha?  
"Jump here!"

" _What?"_

"Jump on the board!"

"But…"

"No time! Just jump! I will make sure you won't fall!"

Jason glanced at Janelle, who gave him a nod. He glanced at the monsters, just a few yards from them.

What? Since when did they grow so closed?

Then Jason lunged.

With the help of Jet's speed, he slammed into Questilsa almost instantly, nearly spinning her off the board. She grabbed him with one hand and the board with the other, balancing herself.

Then she shoved Jason off her and jumped.

It was impossible. Jet was still running, and if she wanted to land on Jet, then the speed she traveled through the air must be even faster than Jet's speed. But when she yelled, time slowed.

Not like the time traveled in slow motion, with dust flowing through the air slowly. There was a tug of at the stomach, a wave of dizziness and nausea and a blink of eye of silence, then the world was spurring forward again. Questilsa had hit Janelle, but already falling onto the ground. Janelle seized at her, grabbing a handful of her shirt and yank her back on the horse.

Janelle glanced back and drew back a breath. Those monsters were here already, snapping their jaws at Kate and Jason. For a moment, it almost reminded Janelle of tigers, but then these things got red fur and two long fangs. Its tail was whipping around, like the scorpion's tail. Kate and Jason were defending themselves against them, using their swords.

Then Janelle glanced at Questilsa. Her face was pale like a ghost and with an arm around Janelle's waist. Then she reached down and touched Jet's side. Then she screamed.

When she screamed, the world folded itself into a whirlpool of space. There was a flash of blinding light, and Jet was shooting off like lightning, with wind threatening to whip her face off. She threw herself against Jet's neck, her arms around it. She couldn't turn around without falling off, so she could just prayed that Kate and Jason didn't fall off.

A few minutes later, Questilsa whispered. "Jet, stop."

Jet continued running.

"Jet," Questilsa's voice was even softer.

"Jet, stop!" Janelle cried out.

Jet halted to a stop, almost throwing Janelle off.

Janelle looked back. Jason and Kate were holding on the board tightly, but the monsters were gone.

"You two okay?" she called out.

"Alive so far," Jason grumbled.

"Where are we?" Kate asked.

"El Giza," Questilsa's voice was unnaturally weak.

Janelle turned to look at her just as Questilsa started to slump off the horse.

"Questilsa!" she cried out and caught the Witch before she slid off. "Jason, Kate, help!"

The two hurried to the mount. Janelle lowered Questilsa's body. "Catch her."

Jason took Questilsa in his arms and Janelle jumped off Jet. Instead of sand, her feet hit something hard. They had reached a concrete road without Janelle realizing.

Jason set Questilsa down. She was shivering and her face was so pale that it was almost milky blue. Her body was beaded with sweat.

"Questilsa?" Jason touched her face and spoke with tenderness that Janelle rarely heard of. The last time must be some time like three or four years ago. "What's wrong?"

"Drain all my power…" she whispered and pointed to her magic bag. "My bag… a little white bottle…"

She coughed, and to Janelle's horror, it was blood that she was coughing out.

Kate tore through Questilsa's bag and fished out a tiny white container, about the size of a glue. "This?"

Questilsa nodded with difficulty between her shakings and reached for the bottle. But her hand didn't listen to her.

"Drink all?" Janelle asked, but Questilsa shook her head. "Just drop… one drop…"

Janelle snatched the bottle from Kate's hand and cupped Questilsa's face. She uncapped the bottle, revealing some pink solution inside. Then she tipped it to Questilsa's mouth and dripped one drop of it into her mouth.

The instant the liquid touched her, an inhuman howl tore from her throat. She arched back to an impossible angle and coughed wildly, blood flying from her mouth. Janelle reached out to hold her down, but Questilsa's eyes rolled back into her head and flopped back on the ground, falling limp.

Three of them stared, frozen in place.

And surprisingly, it was Jason who broke the ice. He took Questilsa's wrist and sighed. "Still alive."

Janelle's hand shot out to under Questilsa's nose. She was breathing, but very shallow.

Kate touched Questilsa's arm. "Her skin was icy cold. We must find a place to rest and let Questilsa heal. I doubt the hospital is available for a Witch."

"Then where?" Janelle inquired.

Then they realized that. They had no help. They had no idea where they were. There was no one who was good enough to fend off demon if they were being attacked.

Janelle suddenly realized how important Questilsa's role was. She wondered how much burden had the Witch bore herself with by being the unofficial leader of four of them.

 _I can see where the nearest city is. We can go there._ Jet nudged Janelle with his nose.

"Great. Let's go there."

Jet wasn't in a good shape to walk himself in this tired form, so the three cut off the board and took their bags off Jet's back. Jason slung Questilsa's up to his shoulder and they slowly walked on this road, leading to the place El Giza, which Questilsa told them right before she passed out.

Janelle looked around. Kate was really gone.

That bitch, running off once she saw some sort of cheap goods and abandoned Janelle in this unfamiliar place, alone.

Kate was somehow lucky that she didn't own a phone. Janelle guessed Elves didn't appreciate high-pitch screeching from angry Power Nemisises.

They had arrived in El Giza a few days ago and had been waiting for Questilsa to wake.

So Janelle got on a bus and rode her way back to the room that they had rent. She now had Aklasava strapped to her side, but nobody seemed to notice. Questilsa later told her that it was because anything related to the Power One could not be seen by mortals unless its master or itself demanded it to be seen. She gave the example of herself turning invisible.

"Turning invisible to the eyes of mortal cost me little power, but to turn invisible to the eyes of Demons, Shaders and LightSouls… I can do it, but tiring work. The mortals who gain knowledge across these things can also see us, because they know what they are looking at."

So as she sat down on a seat that was at the back, she watched three little kids fighting over a seat. All of them demanded to sit by the window side, and their mother looked at them in exasperation. At last all three of them managed to squeeze into the same seat in a tangle of limbs.

Now as their problem was solved, Janelle looked out of the window. This place was insanely hot and dry. Jet had sensed the other Unicorn now, and all they had to do was to wait until Questilsa woke.

Suddenly, she missed her parents horribly. How are they living without her and Jason, their children? Did they tell the cops? Did they cry every night? She checked her phone and saw a million of missed calls from them, mostly from her mother. Finally she couldn't resist the temptation to phone her back.

"Mom?"

"Janelle… you are alive?"

"Yes. Both Jason and I are."

Then it came to the worst part.

"JANELLE LAMBERT WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HORRIBLE IT IS TO US TO SNEAK AWAY WITH NO REASON AND MADE US NOT TO TELL ANYONE YOU BITCH WHERE ARE YOU COME BACK TO HOME NOW AND…"

Janelle's voice caught at her throat as she replied. "I love you, Mom. Both you and Dad."

Then she hung up.

Her mother of course went crazy in calling her back, and Janelle switched the phone off. She shouldn't have phoned her mother. Now it broke both her mother and her very own heart.

She looked out of the window again just to see another bus speeding straight for the middle of the bus she was on, just a few seats in front of her.

She only had the time to grab onto the handle when the other bus hit hers.

 _Questilsa was only nine years old._

 _Her mama and papa had taken her sister and her to El Giza._

 _She had been sitting on her bed with Isa playing with a doll on the floor. Isa was only three. She had this little doll in her hand and started chewing on the doll's pretty blond plait._

" _Uh, you are disgusting, Isa!" she complained._

 _Isa looked at Questilsa with her huge, round, adorable gray eyes and made some sound like huhhhhhhh-uhhhhhhh-arghhhhhhhhh._

 _Something struck Questilsa's fingers suddenly. When she looked at them, they were perfectly fine._

 _Then the pain struck her again, a bolt of white-hot pain that made her double over and screamed out in pain. The pain was like touching her fingers to a fire. She had accidentally done that before and it hurt like hell. As she stared, she saw black markings started to imprint on her fingertips, slowly spreading past her nails._

 _The door was thrown opened and her mama was beside them, a hand over her mouth. She gathered Questilsa into her arms and whispered. "Gods, hold on, sweetheart. This is not possible. My baby cannot become a Witch. Oh lord…"_

 _Another person stepped in. It was Papa, but when he opened his mouth to speak, a bolt of light shot from his mouth and hit Questilsa._

What? _Her subconscious noticed something was wrong now._ This didn't happen!

 _But when the light hit her, she could see something. A bus rolling over, a screaming Kate, a glorious Bob, and an unconscious Janelle. The vision only last for a split of moment, and then darkness hit her._

 _She rolled in the darkness for a while, then she swam up and broke the surface._

Instantly, light flooded into her eyes. She blinked, adjusting to the light. The world was a whirlpool of brown walls and sunlight.

She squinted her eyes and things came into focus.

She was in a room just about the size of the rooms in the Sanctuary of Chaos, though the facility was much better and the place's main colour was brown instead of gray.

She knew she just had a vision. Due to the fact that she was a Witch, she always caught glimpses of the past, the presence and sometimes even the future. She knew that Janelle and Kate were in trouble, now or in the future

"Questilsa?"

She turned her head and found Jason's intent face.

"Good morning," she told him. "Where are we?"

He smiled and leaned back against his chair in relief. "A tiny place we managed to rent in El Giza, not mentioning that this place is being illegally ran."

She struggled to a sitting position and pushed the covers away from her. "Where are Janelle and Kate?"

"Gone to buy some supplies. We have run out of them."

"You three – especially you and Janelle – should have stayed together," she grumbled. "How long am I out?"

"Exactly a week. What happened actually?"

"I need to slow down the time when I jumped on Jet, which spent quite a lot of energy of mine. Then I need to pour all my strength into Jet to quicken his speed. That effort almost killed me."

"And the pink liquid in the white bottle?"

"Help me recover. But it only works when I am unconscious, so it forced me into coma until my strength fully re…"

 _KA-BOOOOOOOOM._

She stopped and Jason glanced out of the window. "I think I heard an explosion some distance away."

The vision she previously had suddenly hit her again, but with so much force that she had to double over and clutched her stomach. The images played in her head so quickly that she almost missed them.

Jason touched her arm. "Questilsa? What is…"

"Janelle and Kate. They are in trouble," she reached for her weapon belt. "Come on."

Janelle really thought she could hold onto something.

But the instant the other bus hit hers, the bus rolled over. She wasn't strong enough to grab onto something and was immediately thrown away.

The world was spinning like madness. She had her eyes shut, and she felt herself hitting bodily against every sort of things, but things were so crazy that she didn't feel any pain. Distantly, she heard herself screaming, as if she wasn't in her own body.

She slammed into something again and then everything stopped.

She was curled up on the ground, half conscious. It felt as if time had stopped again like the Light. All she could hear was her own ragged breathing and the pounding of her heart. Something really sharp was piercing her shoulder. Her entire body was tensed with pain and red mist was veiling her sight. Screams and cries slowly started and soon the bus was full of pained cries.

She opened her eyes and found herself still inside the bus. She could see windows at the top of the bus. The bus had turned over.

She wasn't wearing any seatbelt, so she was thrown around the bus until it stopped turning. When she hit the shattered window, one of the larger pieces stabbed into the back of her shoulder and almost came out at the front.

She looked up and just to see a chair falling off its hinges and tumbling towards her.

She instantly rolled over and the chair hit the place where she had been a moment before. Before she could congratulate herself, her left side flared up with horrible, burning pain. She held it with one hand and bit her lips, waiting for the torturing agony to fade. She didn't dare to move, or even took a deep breathe.

She spat out the blood in her mouth, rewarding another wave of pain at her side. She carefully trailed her fingers down her ribs until her left side exploded into agony.

Oh great. She thought. Now I can carry a broken rib to find the Unicorn.

She heard the sound of glasses shattering. Is it the ambulance?

"Are you sure that the Power Nemisis girl get in?"

"Sure of it. The Janelle girl carrying her little shiny sword. I swear on my life it's her."

"Then find her!"

Her heart sank. She could make out Bob's voice. She couldn't get away from Bob without Questilsa's help. How could she get away when she was alone, and wounded?

The front of the bus was already occupied with Demons. It would take less than a minute before they found her.

How could she escape this bus? She couldn't break the window and jump out. One side of the window was against the ground while the other was facing the sky.

Unless…

She crawled forward, ignoring the screaming pain at her side. It would be easy job, if the pain didn't threaten to force her into a coma.

She grabbed onto a handle and drew herself up to the seats, pulling herself up to the windows that were facing the bright, blue sky.

Her side started screaming again. She climbed higher, just bringing a foot up, and then the other, the other. Ignore everything. Forget the pain. You don't have a body. Just climb.

"There she is! The Power Nemisis!"

She wanted to stop. The pain was unbearable, as if her side was washed over with lava. The pain went over her neck, her left shoulder, her left arm, her left leg. She wanted to hold on and waited until the pain grew dim. She wanted to cry and curse at everything that brought her to this condition. She just wanted to stay there.

But when she looked up and saw the sun, far, far above, she knew she couldn't stop. The sunlight was magic, like a magnet, drawing her up.

Finally she reached the window. She unsheathed Aklasava and flashed the blade across the window. The glass shattered and fell all over her, cutting blood out of her raw skin. She gritted her teeth and climbed out. She prayed silently that the window wouldn't break under her weight.

She sucked in a deep breath. Taking a deep breath was supposed to hurt her broken rib, but the pain was so much that she couldn't feel any more. All she felt was numbness.

There was no time to rest. She looked down at the ground. She had read tales that if a person was falling, curling himself up and rolling forward was the best way to cushion the fall. She never really thought if it was true or not, and now was the time to figure out.

Like rolling into the water in a pool, she curled herself up and kicked herself off the window. She rolled down like a snowball rolling downhill in cartoons and hit the ground.

The impact was stunningly great. She took a few more painful spins forward until she stopped and sprawled on the ground. Her right shoulder—it came contact with the ground first—was burning. She must have dislocated her shoulder as well.

Her sword had clattered out of her hand. She reached out for it. Two feet. One feet. Five inches, three inches, two inches…

Then a giant boot stepped onto it. She watched a purple hand picking it up and smiling down at her. "Hello, Janelle."

"Bob," she wanted it out as a snarl, but it came out as a whimper.

"Ah. Is there a reason why you keep calling me Bob? It doesn't really suit me."

"Ah. Is there a reason why your skin is neon purple? It doesn't really suit you. You know, a screaming mess of purple is quite eye-catching in the middle of some pretty vomit."

"Bah!" it yelled and slammed its boot into the left rib cage of Janelle. She gasped in pain and a bolt of darkness shot through the back of her eyes.

She reached down for a dagger that was concealed in her boot, but Bob grabbed her arm and rested Aklasava on her elbow.

"You don't want me to cut it, do you?"

"No. Cut yours down. I want it for Christmas. I can hang your arm on my Christmas tree, though I think your head would work better."

Bob snarled and raised Aklasava. She struggled, desperately trying to pull her hand away from his death grip. A few more Demons rushed forward and held her down. She had forgotten her broken rib completely. All she wanted was to save her arm. She didn't want to lose it. Don't…

Then Bob loosened its grip on Aklasava.

Janelle managed to jerk her arm back as Aklasava fell, its tip striking the ground, point-down. She looked up for Bob and saw it rolling on the ground, screaming in pain. Beside it was Kate, a long hunting knife in her hand.

She darted back immediately when others Ants threw themselves at her. One managed to grab her arm and she attempted to shake it off. She once told Janelle that she wasn't a great fighter. She just knew the basics.

There was no way she could survive a fight with six Demons.

Then all the Ants flew back, screaming.

Jason was brandishing a long water pipe in his hand, but the pipe was even thicker than his arm and possibly almost his weight. How did he manage…

Two Ants rushed to Janelle before she understood what was going on. She scrabbled for her sword, but something dark blurred between Janelle and the two Ants first, driving the dagger in each her hand into each of the Ant with a swift, skilled stab.

"Questilsa," she almost sobbed with relief.

"No sobbing. A warrior never wept," Questilsa said sternly and charged others Demons. Kate was beside Janelle an instant later, pulling her up into a sitting position.

"Aw, aw, aw!" she yelled out in pain.

Kate stopped immediately. "Janelle, you got to…"

"Kate," she called out and collapsed into the Elf's arms, and fell into a void of darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

Janelle was falling.

She was floating and falling in a pool of darkness, the liquid pounding at her slow heartbeat. Everything was so peaceful, so soft, so quiet.

Then a ball of white light exploded, far, far away, like the end of a long, endless and dark, dark tunnel.

A voice, cold and strong, flooded through the tunnel. "How did you manage it?"

Another voice. Deeper. "I… I never have the chance to tell you. My power is Triggered while Janelle and Kate were out and you were asleep."

The third voice. Shriller, sweeter, and sharper. "That is totally amazing. You save my life!"

The first voice, cold and strong. "This is really good. You will need to practice more on it."

Silence. The white ball of light seemed to dim a little.

Then the shrill, sweet voice. "How did she manage to climb out of the bus? Two broken ribs, a bleeding shoulder, and a dislocate shoulder?"

The deep voice. "This is my sister." Janelle felt a hand plunging into the black pool, through the liquid and into her warm, warm hair. She felt tenderness in the hand, tenderness that she had never felt in that hand before.

Shrill, sweet voice. "Questilsa? I think I just saw her move a tiny bit."

The first cold voice. "She wasn't dead? Good."

Then the white light faded and Janelle sank, sank and sank until she dissolved into the water.

It was somewhere between late at night or early in the morning when Janelle opened her eyes.

She found herself in a warm bed and knew instantly that she was in a hospital.

She saw Kate asleep at the back of her bed, curling up beside Janelle's feet and snuggling into the end of the covers. She had pillowed herself with her arm with her golden locks falling over the bed like a waterfall. A few feet away from her, Questilsa was sleeping in an armchair, her arms folded up at her chest. She looked so peaceful, her features so soft that she almost seemed like a ten-year-old girl, exhausted after a long but pleasant day.

When Janelle looked more closely, she realized Questilsa wasn't asleep. There were three photos on her lap and she was merely staring down at them. Janelle looked away at once, because the look in Questilsa's dark gray eyes was so unguarded, so full of pain, sadness, love and despair. It was just like the time when she saw Questilsa at the Sanctuary of Chaos, when Questilsa thought they were asleep.

Like now.

She quickly looked to her other side and saw Jason.

He was kneeling on the floor, his arms on her bed and his head resting on it. His dark hair was tousled and he was drooling onto his arm like a little child. He must not have taken care of himself for days.

One of his hands was outstretched and his fingers looping through hers loosely. She saw a bandage over his wrist and couldn't help but ran her fingers softly over the white material and to his skin, where the blue veins pulsed.

"Jason," she smiled softly before sinking back into her slumber, like Titanic disappearing into the cold, dark water.

It was the smell of coffee that woke Janelle.

Her eyes popped open at once. She saw Kate sipping a cup of coffee before Jason snatching it back.

"Coffee," Janelle croaked.

All three of them crowded beside her at once.

"Are you finally awake?" Kate squeaked. "I am scared to death! I really thought you would just stay in a coma for the rest for your life! You are the best sort of girl I ever known and I really don't want you to die on me! You don't deserve to spend the rest of your life in a bed, not able to do anything! And the world surely need you. The world cannot survive without you! And…"

She clearly could babble for ages but only interrupted by Jason, who put his arms around his little sister. "You are out for almost a week, girly," he was clearly being careful, worried that he might hurt her.

"I'm fine," she laughed and hugged him back. Then she scowled. "Actually, I don't feel painful at all. Nothing at all."

"You are a Power Nemisis," Questilsa smiled at her from behind Jason. "The blood that flow in your veins don't only carry a warrior. It also makes you heal faster than normal person. You can actaully heal others by touch when you understand how exactly do your entire power thing work."

Janelle smiled and untangled herself from Jason. "This is really cool."

"Your identity is still uncertified," Questilsa tapped Janelle's hand. It felt strange, sharing such a casual touch with a person as cold as Questilsa. "We cannot let the people here knew that we are actually a group of kids who sneaked inside this country illegally. It will be better if you pretend to remain unconscious. The docs didn't expect you to wake up so soon, anyway. I think they might freak out when they found you had woken already."

"Make sense," Janelle flopped back down to the bed.

"Guys, I didn't have the chance to tell you before, but I am doing it now," Kate suddenly leaned forward. "The Operation… there was a little incident over there."

"The Operation?" Jason scowled. "What is it?"

"As I recall, it is where Bob come from," Janelle turned towards Questilsa, whose entire body tensed once Kate spoke. "Is it?"

Questilsa nodded. "Yes. Go on, Katherine."

Kate didn't seem glad that Questilsa called her full name, but she didn't say a word about it. "There was a little fire and gunfire in there. Just a little incident. Not even on TV."

"And?"

Kate fished out a folded up paper in her pocket and handed it to Questilsa. "I looked up on it and found this picture."

Questilsa unfolded it and the Lamberts poked their heads towards it. The picture was very blurred, but Janelle could make out a blonde boy and a blonde girl running, follow by another blackhead girl.

"What's it?" Jason asked curiously.

"Is that Razer?" Questilsa clutched the paper so tightly that her fingernails almost cut through it.

"I think so," Kate nodded. "This is taken right outside of the Operation by a CCTV. I have got another picture of the boy."

She took out another paper. The image wasn't very clear, but Janelle could make out the frantic face of a teenaged boy. She could see the outline of a pair of glasses. He was actually quite good-looking (at least better than Jason), but she guessed it wasn't the point.

"Whoa, hold on. Can anyone tell me what the hell is going on?" Jason raised his hands.

Nobody answered him.

Jason turned to Janelle. "Do you know what the hell is going on?"  
"I have no idea what the hell is going on," Janelle replied.

"This is the Operation," Kate started. "The headquarters of the Power One. A place fill with Demons."

"Questilsa told us before," Janelle nodded.

"Did she?" Jason looked surprised.

"Yes, dumbass, she did, Kate, go on."

"No _accident_ will occur in there. Some captured person must have started the fire and was shot at, though I guessed they didn't get hit. It would be the blond boy and girl. Almost nobody had managed to escape the Operation before—" she glanced at Questilsa, who was staring intently at the picture of the boy, "— it was really shocking news that someone got away, and they were teenagers. These two kids—not a simple background, clearly."

Janelle glanced at Questilsa, who was still staring at the picture of the boy. "What are you thinking?"

"Why didn't the Demons kill the two teenagers when they ran?" Questilsa mused. "Those gunfires… that should have killed them."

"Maybe the Demons missed?" Jason suggested.

"No. No way they could miss. They must have missed them on purpose."

"On purpose?" Janelle sat bolt upright. "That means… something about the teenagers made the Demons dare not to shoot them."

"Maybe not the Demons. The order might come from the Power One," Questilsa leaned forward. "And when I put it together, I figure it out. The Power One captured two teenagers but didn't dare to kill them. And for some shocking reasons, they managed to escape _together._ Do you two remember the first time you saw Bob? He dared not to kill you as well, because…"

"The Power One was scared that if a Power Nemisis dies, another would take his place like the Unicorns," as Janelle spoke, everything clicked into places. "Oh my gods…"

Even someone as dumb as Jason figured it out. "Those two… they are Power Nemisises."

"Or at least one," Questilsa nodded.

"Where is this place?" Janelle quickly demanded.

"London. That doesn't matter, as long as the Sancturay of Chaos exists," Questilsa waved her hand.

"What about Razer? You brought this name up just now," Jason raised his hand.

Kate and Questilsa glanced at each other. Then Questilsa turned to her two confused friends. "Razer… do you remember that once you guys asked me if I knew others Witches. I told you I knew another one, but she was lost?"

"Some vague memory, yes," Janelle said the same moment Jason said. "Nope."

They glared at each other for a moment and turned back to Questilsa.

"Razer… she is very famous among this Dark World. She was born as a perfectly normal Witch. But then the Operation kidnapped her when she was still an infant and experimented her with chemicals as she grew. She is now brainwashed that we LightSouls were evil and she must worship the Power One. The worst thing was that the chemicals made her very, very strong. She was impossible to defeat."

"Have you like… try to persuade her before? Like… telling her she was a Witch and stuff?"

"She knows she is a Witch. She just doesn't care. She is no longer a LightSoul, Janelle. She is a species that nobody knew, something next to a Demon. She is pure evil. She is a villain."

"That's bad," Jason muttered.

"Can't blame her. It is the chemicals that drive her mad," Kate shrugged.

"Not chemicals. _Poison._ " Questilsa corrected.

"Have you two met her before?" Janelle inquired.

"Me, never," Kate pointed at herself and then Questilsa. "Her, more than once."

"Three times," Questilsa took up. "I… I would be very small when I first saw her. In an attack, actually," Questilsa started twisting a ring on her index finger. Janelle had never noticed it before. It was a black one and with a white gem shining on the black band. "The second time would be around four to five years later, when she dragged me into the Operation. The last time was actually around four years ago."

She didn't mention what happened between her and Razer four years ago.

"Wait," Jason held up his hand. "Breslin, you have been to the Operation before? And you get away?"

"With the help with a friend," she muttered, clearly uncomfortable with this conversation. It must do something with her past. Nobody pushed her.

Their conversation was forced to a stop when a nurse came in. Janelle fell back into the bed and pretended to be unconscious while the others hurried away.

Later that night, Kate went off to buy some stuff to eat while Jason fell asleep on the armchair. Questilsa must have thought that Janelle was also asleep, as she took out the two photos again. She sat on the floor, her eyes blank.

Janelle slipped down from her bed and went beside Questilsa, who turned the photos over instantly when she noticed that Janelle was awake. Janelle sat down beside Questilsa so that they were shoulder-to-shoulder. It was actually the first time the two were sitting so close together.

"What is it?" Questilsa glanced at Janelle carefully.

Janelle didn't say anything at first. After a few seconds: "I am scared."

Qustilsa's features softened. "It's alright, Janelle. We are all scared."

"No… I am terrified. Just that… I had no idea what was going on. It was like a quiz, but I didn't know anything. I didn't understand what was going on, and I had no idea what I should do if something happened, and heck, I don't really who _I_ really was. It's just… a mess."

"I understand, There was a time when I was confused too, not knowing what would happen next. You wouldn't know if you were about to die or not. Time will help you, Janelle. Experience grew with time and one day, everything would come into life under your fingers."

"What we don't have is time," Janelle replied bitterly. "And sometimes… it felt as if everything was crushing down on me. Jason, who seemed to depend on me more than I needed him. You and Kate… I seemed to depend on you two, dragging you into dangers and traps. I was so furious, powerless…"

"You are not powerless, Janelle. You are strong. That is why your brother need to depend on his baby sister," Questilsa suddenly caught Janelle's arm in an iron grip. "You are stronger than me. It is only a matter of time before it is you who pull me from darkness."

"Me? Stronger than you? Don't tease me, Questilsa," Janelle wrenched her arm out of Questilsa's grip. "I am utterly lost now. And you seem that you have everything under control, while I grasp at nothing at all."

"That's it. Sometimes, blaming yourself is the start of strength. Look at him," she pointed at Jason, still sleeping, and _drooling._ "Of course he is not blaming himself for everything. You can see it in his eyes. And I can also see in my eyes that though he is the better fighter, you are the warrior. Blame… it makes you angry, humiliated. You will fight. You will be—and you must be the one who survive all and manage to the top of everything. Trust me on that, Janelle Lambert."

"I hate being weak, then. When you guys rushed to save me at the bus and I was lying on the ground, helpless… I felt so… weak. I should be the one who's up fighting, not the one whom you need to fight _for._ "

"Fighting someone is one thing, but sending out people to fight for you… yes, this is an entirely different thing," Questilsa nodded, her stormy gray eyes graved.

"Questilsa…. What happened to you when you first deal with all these things? Did you like… broke down?"

Questilsa tensed. It was clearly a matter than she hated touching.

"Hey, you don't have to tell me. It is your thing. It is fine," Janelle quickly said.

"No. I should tell you," she shook her head and gazed over at Jason. He had shifted his position and his snoring, soft like clouds, were filling up the silent room. "I have been shying away from this subject for years. I need to confront it."

Questilsa pressed something into Janelle's hand. When Janelle looked down, she found a family picture on her palm. There were four persons: a teenaged girl holding a baby, a man with his hands on another tiny girl's shoulders.

"Your family?"

Questilsa nodded. "Mom, Dad, my little sister Isabella and me."

Thinking of Questilsa's family was strange. Janelle rarely thought about it. Questilsa seemed to sprang out from a rock in a dark, dark cave and raised by a warrior, but not a normal family. Janelle tried to picture a cozy house, a mother in the kitchen and filling the house with the scent of home-made cookies, a father watching TV, and two little girls on the floor, Questilsa being the older one. Questilsa was pretending to be a princess and waiting for the prince to come save her, and her sister was pretending to be an angel, flapping her arms as if she could soar into the air.

Janelle couldn't picture it. It was like imagining a lion claiming that it was vegetarian.

"Your mother is so young. How is that possible?" Janelle brushed a finger over the teenaged girl.

It was true. The teenaged girl looked only around fourteen or fifteen, while her husband was already in his thirties.

"Do you remember the story of the Power One killing its own mother after it passed?" Questilsa raised a question. Janelle nodded, "The Power One actually had two siblings, well, before it killed both of them. Its elder brother—five of his descendent will become the Power Nemisises. You and Jason. And his elder sister—all of her daughters' lives were longer than normal. And so were her daughters' daughters. The slowness of their growing rate was passed down though her daughters and eventually five become the Witches."

"I grasp that your mother and sister also have longer lives… wait. Does that makes you my cousin?"

"Well, a very, very distant one, if you want to see it that way," Questilsa replied dryly.

"Then how did your family realize that you were a Witch instead of a normal daughter with two hundred years of life span… if you call that normal."

Questilsa chuckled softly. "Ah, I would be nine at that time. Only about five in normal people's eyes. And coincidentally, it happened right in here. Egypt, El Giza."

"It was originally a very normal family trip. It would be a very peaceful day also. Then suddenly the Runes started marking my arms."

"The process of the Marking is painful, no, _agony_. It took almost a day to finish the Marking, and my parents couldn't do anything with the pain. I passed out a few times. I was only nine years old at that time. Nine. A little girl."

She stopped, twisting the black ring on her finger again.

"Then how are you… separated?"

"A year later. My family moved into a little house in a quiet village near a desert to keep me hidden. One day, Dad was driving me in his jeep and went to the desert. I didn't remember the purpose anymore, but then… things happened so fast. Dad was killed, and I was on my own, running away. There was almost two long days of wandering around, alone. I almost died of dehydration. Then I met him."

She took out the second picture. It was of a man, kneeling by the ground and building a fire.

"I took this picture without him realizing a few months after I met him," Questilsa smiled, but it was a smile so sour and bitter that the sadness was greater than any happiness that she had ever faced. "When I first ran into him in the desert, he knew I was a Witch straightaway. He took me back to the village, but… it was burnt down completely. My house was a wreck. I had no idea if Mom and Isa survived or not, but I have never seen them since that morning," she looked close to tears now, and it was the first time Janelle truly understood that under a mask of coolness, there was always a another person underneath.

And of course, she couldn't even dream that one day, someone would see her as the same way.

"The man took care of me since then, though he never mention his true identity to me. He said his wife and children were all dead. He told me to call him _Father_."

"When I was fifteen, which would be five years later, I was captured by the same person who murdered my family. Razer, than bitch," Questilsa spat. There was so much hatred in the word _Razer,_ as if the name was a dark spell, soaked with evilness. "That is how I was brought to the Operation, but _Father_ helped me escaped. Very soon, we were attacked by Razer again. I managed to escape… but Father didn't. I watched Razer killed my family yet again."

Questilsa furiously wiped her tears away. Janelle wanted to touch Questilsa with comforting pats, but she doubted Questilsa would appreciate it.

"I met Zackline a year later. We grew close very soon and started looking for the Unicorns and Power Nemisises. Zackline was a very good person. Much better than me, anyway. She had that unique warm heart of hers. And always, always optimistic. She is the one who deserves to live, not me. But at the end I am the one who survive. She is brutally murdered." she opened her hand. On her palm lay the last photo. It was a selfie, one of Zackline's arms locking around Questilsa's shoulders and the other one holding the camera. Questilsa didn't look happy. She was pushing and clawing at Zackline, trying to get away furiously. But the twinkle in her laughing eyes was so obvious that Janelle couldn't help smiling. The picture itself was so… natural. So pleasant.

"Everyone that I love keeps dying," her voice was plain, but deep inside it, Janelle could hear the pain, the grief. "My family, Father, and then even sweet, sweet Zackline. When I learned that she actually died for two idiots like you two… well, I got a little angry."

"By trying to strangle me. One of my most memorable experiences," Janelle smiled.

Questilsa forced a smiled. "Yeah, mine too."

"Don't force a smile upon yourself. Don't fake your own emotion. Don't fake yourself."

Questilsa stared at her. "I feel like being lectured by a little girl."

"Well, you are ten."

"I am twenty-one. You are fourteen."

"Just three months from fifteen."

"Get some rest, Janelle. Kate went to contact Jet. He had been out there all the time. He said he sensed another Unicorn in a pyramid. We are going tomorrow. "

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. For god's sake, stop being an idiot like Jason!"

"You said that I was lecturing you ten seconds ago. And now I am being the idiot."

Questilsa opened her mouth to speak. Then she closed it and shook her head but smiling. Janelle stood up, crawled back to her bed, and lay awake for the rest of the night.

Getting away from the hospital was really easy job.

They just sneaked out with no problem and left. Just like that.

Then the problem came.

Suddenly Kate screamed and threw herself at Questilsa, who yelled and hit the ground. Janelle sucked in a breath when she saw a spike whistled above the two girl's head and embedded into the back of the neck of a man.

The man went down without a noise. The memory of Disney struck Janelle, when a knife hit Max and he went down without a sound.

Questilsa was up in a second, yanking Kate up with her. "Bob. We have to get away as soon as possible."

"But where can we go?" Jason cried out. The street had gone even more chaotic than the Sanctuary of Chaos, if that was possible. But it was happening. Everybody was running around in all direction, here and there. Janelle felt Kate's hand grabbing the back of her shirt to avoid being torn away by the mob, and Janelle clutched to Questilsa's sleeve.

"Out of this city, immediately! Jet will take us straight to the Pyramid," Questilsa yelled back a reply and started running.

They raced through the street as the other people rushed by, here and there, not knowing what they should run from.

Janelle didn't know where they were going. She was completely lost. She wanted to ask if Questilsa really knew the way, but she later decided not to. Just hoped that Questilsa knew the way. That's all she could do.

Then Questilsa stopped dead and Jason ran into her back.

Janelle saw Bob, a few blocks away, with around ten Demons by its side. Beside Ants, she could see another creature, chubby and around twenty-five feet in height, its skin milky pale. Its eyes were flaming purple, with red sparks dancing it it.

And it was drooling.

Its saliva drooped almost to the ground, like icicle, except a million times more disgusting with bubbles inside.

"A Troll," Kate spoke, as if she could read Janelle's mind. "One of the Demons. Strong, its skin so hard that it was almost invincible, but incredibly stupid."

"Here to kill us again?" Questilsa called out at Bob. "Ten Demons against four of us? Not a smart move."

"Look behind you, Questilsa."

Everyone whipped their heads behind, except Questilsa. "Yeah, yeah, I saw it already. Ten Hounds being reined by ten Ants. I can see that."

Janelle stared. There were ten Ants behind them, also a few blocks from them. And each of them held a metal chain in its hand, which led to a hound on the ground.

Each Hound was about the size of Beethoven, its skin coal black. Their eyes are two beams of red spotlight and was blinding to look at.

"If you get past me, I promise we won't follow," Bob called out, grinning. "But I am afraid that isn't possible, my friend. Now, take your time talking strategy. I am patient."

"What now?" Kate's voice quavered. The people were all gone now, leaving only four of them, surrounded by monsters.

"We have to get pass Bob," Questilsa replied under her breath. "And I have no idea how."

Great. Even the one with most senses didn't know what to do. They were dead.

"We will make a run for it," Janelle spoke up. "Questilsa, do you think you can handle the Hounds?"

Questilsa looked at Janelle in somewhere between bewilderment and confusion and pride. "I can stay alive, but it will takes a long time to take them down."

"Good. Keep yourself alive. Get past Bob slowly. Kate, Jason, keep the Ants occupied. Can you?"

Kate nodded hesitantly while Jason's face was a mask of fear.

"What about you?"

"I will take the Troll."

"Take the Troll?" Questilsa choked. "Janelle, did you hear what Katherine said?

This is a Troll. It may be stupid, but it is invincible. No blade can pierce its skin. No force is enough to knock it out, unless you drop Empire State Building on its head."

"I have a plan."

"Let me guess," Jason perked in. "A very stupid plan that sucks so much that you might get killed."

"Well… yeah."

Questilsa studied Janelle's face. "Are you sure about it?"

"Definitely," she nodded, her gaze firm and steady, hoping others could feel the confidence in her eyes while she had none.

Surprisingly, Questilsa didn't protest. She raised her head to Bob. "Swear, Bob. Swear that you and your friends will let us go if we get past you while you will stay where you are and not move an inch. You will not lay a finger on us again."

"That, I am afraid is not possible, young lady. But I can offer you one day. One day free from us."

"That's a deal. Swear, Bob. Swear on the Power One."

Bob froze. Janelle immediately knew that it was lying and even if the four of them got past Bob, it would immediately persuade them.

Bob thought for a while. Then it smiled. "Nope."

It raised a fist, and all Demons lunged at them at once, leaving him standing at where it was, raising a hand—a farewell for the four of them.

Janelle swept out Aklasava instantly and her eyes went for the Troll. It was nake except for an oily loincloth. It didn't have fangs and claws like other Demons, but it had a huge axe in its hand. The edge looked blunt, but Janelle was pretty sure that if the Troll touched her with that thing, she is dead.

She took out another weapon—a throwing knife—out of her sheath and threw it at the Troll.

Okay, back up. She had practiced knife-throwing with Jason and Questilsa back at the Sanctuary of Chaos, but well, she really sucked at it. She gave it up once she found herself with knives. But throwing at the wooden wall was one thing. Throwing at a twenty five feet high creature was another thing.

It hit its shoulder with its tip but merely dropped on the ground. Where the knife struck, there wasn't even a little scratch.

Oh, crap. Janelle really didn't want to use her plans.

The Troll had noticed her now, obviously not happy that she had thrown a knife at it. Janelle guessed it didn't like mosquitoes bites as well.

It was in front of her a split of second later. It slammed its axe down towards her and she sidestepped. The axe buried into the concrete road.

"Moo?" it tried to pull it out but when it didn't budge, it made a sound like a cow. "MOOO!"

Janelle took a deep breath. Then she leapt towards the Troll.

She only managed to hold on its arm as it had bent down. It gave a shriek when it found someone clinging to it and stood bolt upright, trying to shake her off. She locked her arms around it, hanging for dear life. Gods, don't let go, don't let go…

Then she found her opportunity. It started turning around to grab her and she flung herself up, her legs flying and then each of them was on each of the Troll's shoulders. She let go and found herself sitting on its shoulder like a kid on his father's shoulders.

The Troll freaked out and tried plucking at her. She locked her legs around its throat and drove Aklasava, as hard as she could, right into the top of its head.

She had been praying that though normal blade couldn't pierce its skin, a blade that was sharp as Aklasava might do the job. However, the tip of the blade just hit the top of its bald head like a pencil hitting a metal wall. Janelle had used all her strength in this strike, and the force almost dislocated her wrist, forcing her to let go of the hilt.

The Troll found Janelle's arm at this moment and yanked her off its shoulder. She twisted in the air, glaring into its purple eyes. It tilted its head and hurled her towards a wall.

As she sailed through the air, she knew she was dead. There was no way she could survive the impact against the wall… she would be flattened into a pancake.

But then something else hit her before she slammed into the wall.

"Ohh," she groaned in pain and sat up. It was Jason beside her, also moaning in pain. He tried to grab her before she hit the wall, but even his non-human strength wasn't enough to stop her. He only slowed down her speed and both ended up hitting the wall.

"Thanks," she gasped.

Instead of replying, he grabbed onto her ponytail. "What the bloody hell are you doing? You might have got killed!"

"I got this, Jason. I have a plan," she wrenched his hand away and gripped it tightly.

"This plan killed you just now!"

"Well, I am alive so far, so it is working," she shrugged and then glanced at the Troll. It had pulled its axe up now and was heading towards her.

"Go help Kate. I can handle this!"

"But, Jan…"

"GO!"

He didn't protest. He knew that his sister wasn't dumb. If she had a plan, it probably was a nice plan. Though he had no idea she actually had no plan.

She stood up shakily and faced the Troll, which was only a few yards from her now.

Time to use plan B.

Did she have a plan B?

Actually, no.

Then come up with one!

Then she really managed to come up with one.

A little note. _Plan a = sucks. Plan B = sucks more._

She plunged her hand into Zackline's back and fished out a box of matches.

The Troll was in front of her already. It slammed its axe down at her, but she rolled forward, right between its legs and to its back. It leaned down to peek between its legs, wondering where did its prey go.

She snatched out a match and brushed it furiously against the box. Come on…

The Troll saw her and strode towards her, its drool dripping on the ground.

The match lit.

Janelle didn't have any explosive by her side and she guessed that the Troll's skin couldn't be put on fire.

So instead, she lifted the orange flame to her mouth. Jason could lift heavy stuff. She could do this too. She had to, or she was going to die. Jason is going to die, Questilsa, Kate. And if she, a Power Nemisis dies, then the entire world was going to die too.

 _Janelle, you can control elements. Fire, earth, water, and air_

Something clicked inside her. Like she was in a room of darkness, and now a switched was clicked on and the room turned into light. Now just light, but light that burned even more fierce than the sun itself.

Then she blew.

Instead of going out, the flame shot out like a wave. It hit the Troll's oily loincloth and it was set on fire.

It shrieked, patting it, trying to put it out. Janelle dropped the match and held out a hand.

The flame shot up, consuming the Demon. It screamed, like a lion being strangled to death. It ran around in wild circles. A few moments later, it fell onto the ground. After a few spasm, it didn't move again.

Bob stared at her, its mouth slightly opened in fear. Then three words came from its mouth.

"KILL THE GIRL!"

The others were around her instantly.

"Go ahead, the fire!" Questilsa was practically screaming now. She was bleeding from several places, but her eyes were shining as if it was on fire, like the Troll, still burning.

She held up both of her hands and swiped them both wide, almost hitting Jason's shoulder.

The fire that was dying at the Troll shot up again and sped towards the remaining Ants and Hounds. They screamed as some caught fire. Some fell, some ran. Janelle turned to Bob, who was running away with unbelievable speed.

"No!" Questilsa caught Janelle's arm. "Don't kill it. Let it returns to the Operation. Let the Power One knew that we were not powerless anymore."  
There was pride in Questilsa's usual cold, but now beaming eyes.

Janelle lowered her hand and stared at it. Then she snapped her finger.

She heard the ruffle of the wind, then a rubbish bin crashed onto the ground.

Janelle stared at the bin, then threw her head back and laughed like a madwoman.

She had never been so happy before.

Then the world exploded into white light.

Third Unicorn down.


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

" **I cant believe we manage to sneak in so easily."**

"Well, not that it was your work, Jase," Janelle replied. "Questilsa was crazy. How did she manage to sneak us inside this Pyramid this easily?"

"She probably has spent her entire life doing this," he flashed his flashlight across the wall. "Funny writing over here. The ancient Egypt are pretty funny."

"Those are drawings, dumbass," she replied and stopped in front of wall. "This is a dead end."

"Well, no," Jason pressed his shoulder against it and pushed it forward. The wall cracked and gave in, revealing a space for them to go in.

"A door," he said proudly. "Come on."

Janelle stopped. "Should we like… tell Questilsa and Katherine about it? I don't feel like going inside this secret passage without telling them."

"Ya right," Jason nodded. "Wait here. I will fetch them."

"Should we go together?" Janelle hesitated. "Being alone in this creepy place… not a good idea."

"I need you to call out when I come back so I can follow the track of your sound. There's no way I can walk through all the turns and still manage to return to this very door."

"Fine," she sighed. "Just be quick."

Jason nodded and sprinted off to where Questilsa and Kate had headed off. "Questilsa! Kate! Can you hear me?"

Once she was alone, she couldn't help shivering. She had always been a little afraid of dark, and being alone in the middle of a pyramid… it really freaked her out. She chewed on her lip and peeked inside the crack at the door.

Inside was nothing but darkness. She shivered, hoping Jason would be back soon.

After some time like forever, she heard a little voice. "Jason? I am over here!"

She heard the noise again. It was louder this time. She made out that it was a whimper instead of a yell.

And it was coming from behind the door.

She took a step back, her entire body cold. A whimper in a locked up pyramid, which was at the edge of collapsing? A living creature inside…?

"Help!" she could make out the noise now. It was a male voice, though very young. Not even an adult, possibly.

"Is someone here?" the voice cried out again.

"Hu….llo?" Janelle squeaked into the crack.

Then a hand shot out from the crack, seized her, and dragged her inside.

She screamed and slashed Aklasava wildly. She felt the blade hitting its target. The hand on her arm loosened, and then the _thud_ of something hitting the ground was heard.

She clutched at her chest, panting. What the bloody hell was that?

She scrabbled around her body for the flashlight, but soon she realized she had dropped it when the person yanked her in. She looked back at the door and found no crack for her to go back out.

She hit her fists against the door and tried to shove it. It wouldn't budge.

"You cannot," a voice rang. The same voice that whimpered for help, "move it from inside."

Janelle swirled around, flinging her sword towards the speaker. She found her sword resting at the throat of a slump form of a boy.

Under the dim glow of her sword, she could see that the boy was around twelve or so, thin and pale, his eyes sunk deep into the sockets. His eyes were tired and were at the edge of closing them and never opening them again.

"Who are you? What are you doing in here?"

"Steven. Steven Compton. Put that thing away. I have no intention of attacking you. I have no idea why was I kidnapped into this place. The man you killed over there—" he pointed a bony finger at the ground, "—that's my dad. Thanks for murdering him."

"Oh, I…" she squeaked but didn't remove her sword. "I am sorry. I… but why are you here? What happened?"

"No. I really thank you for killing him. He was very thirsty. I thought he was going to drink my blood," the boy, Steven Compton, shrugged. "We were suddenly knocked out and thrown into this place with a bunch of others people. They got deeper into the pyramid and none get out. We learned that staying here is better than exploring this fucking place."

"Someone kidnapped you here?" she carefully removed her sword. He didn't even seem to notice. "For how long?"

"Four days already. I drained this thing yesterday," he pointed at an empty bottle on the ground

Janelle took out a water bottle from Zackline's bag and held it out for him. His eyes shone when he saw it and snatched it from her hand. All the water was gone in a few gulps.

"Thanks," he gasped. "I am so thirsty."

"Scott, what do you mean… this thing couldn't be open?" Janelle searched for a handle. None.

"This door was bloody heavy. It can only be pushed from outside with someone of incredible strength. There is no way we can pull it from here," he sighed. "So when I heard voices out there, I woke up and tried to call for help."

"And you did. I have friends out there. They will come here in any second…" her voice faltered when she remembered Jason saying he needed her voice as a guide. She opened her mouth. "Jason…"

"Don't call!" he grabbed her arm. His grip was surprisingly strong for a half dead person. "It will find you. It will come here and kill us. I don't want to die. I don't care why would you and your friends end up in here, but if you have friends, then they will come and save us. We can live. Don't call out!"

"What do you mean?" she found a match from Zackline's bag and lit it. The flickering flame was lonely in the darkness, a lone lamb lost in the wood.

"That thing," he stammered. "That thing."

"Which thing?"

"It is here."

"What?"

"Run!"

Steven got to his feet but almost collapsed. Janelle caught him and draped one of his arms around her shoulders.

"Go go go go go go go go go!" he yelled.

"To where?" she cried out.

"Anywhere?"

Janelle glanced back at the shut door. She decided to believe this boy and sprinted into the darkness.

They ran in the endless darkness of the pyramid. The corridors were like a maze—around a minute later, she was completely lost.

"Have you watched the _Maze Runner_?" Steven Compton suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Maze Runner, man. The dudes who run around in the maze."

"Never heard of it before," she panted and took a sharp turn to the left.

"That book was adapted into a movie! How come…"

"Please, if that Maze Runner thing is going to help us stay alive, tell me. If not, shut up!"

"Just that I feel like the idiots that are running in the maze with monsters running behind them. The of course the main character kills the monster."

"Kill the monster," she repeated softly.

She remembered something that she asked Jet when they were riding to this Pyramid.

 _Jet, what do you Unicorns eat for food?_

 _It will freak you out._

 _Just say it._

 _Human blood._

 _What?_

 _I said it would freak you out. After you cut off my horn… Relax. I can eat grass now._

She stopped and faced Steven Compton. "The monster… is it like a horse?"

"I think so. Wait, do you think you can take it with that sharpy thing of yours?"

"No. I can't. But I can hold it," she let him go and gave him a little shove. "Go ahead and run. I will catch up with you later!"

Steven Compton glanced at her. Then he hobbled into the darkness.

And screamed.

She froze and then raced forward.

And found herself nose to nose with a Unicorn.

"JANELLE!" Jason cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled. "Little sis!"

"She isn't replying," Questilsa scowled. "Quiet up, guys."

She raised her left arm and whispered something. A Rune on her upper arm glowed.

"Rune of Hearing," Kate whispered into Jason's ear.

Questilsa closed her eyes. A few minutes later—it seemed like a few decades for Jason—her eyes snapped open.

"I can read your expression. You are not satisfied with what's going on."

"Don't pretend as if you know me, Lambert. But… yeah. Something bad's going on."

"Then what is it?" he grabbed hold of Questilsa's loose sleeve, who jerked back.

 _That's strange._ He thought. _She let Janelle touched her like that._

"Fighting," she replied. "This way. Come on!"

Questilsa raced down the corridor. Kate and Jason glanced at each other, then followed her down. Questilsa didn't hesitate at any bifurcation. She just ran.

Until they were at the door which Janelle mistaken as a wall.

The door was now closed, and Janelle was nowhere to be seen. Fear crept up his heart. No. Janelle must be fine. His baby sister must be fine.

"It's her torchlight," Kate said shakily as she picked up a broken torchlight from the ground.

"She isn't here," Jason looked around, trying to look calm. "I told her to wait."

"And you left her?" she whirled at him, her eyes blazing. "Jason Lambert, if we get out of here alive—with Janelle or not—I will kill you myself. With my bare hands."

"I can hear noises," Kate interrupted her threatening speech. "There are noises behind the wall. Questilsa, did you lead the wrong way, or Jason, did you remember wrongly?"

"Out of the way, girl," Jason shooed Kate away and pressed his hands against it. A little shove, and the door opened.

"Whoa," Kate raised an eyebrow and stepped inside, but Questilsa stopped her. "Wait, Katherine. There's something here."

Jason glanced at Questilsa as she flashed her own flashlight across the ground. Nausea washed over Jason when he saw the corpse on the ground.

Questilsa didn't make any screams or stuff. She just said "shine your torch at the body, Katherine" and bent down to study it.

"He is killed by a wound at throat," she said grimly. Jason didn't understand how could she bear fiddling over a corpse like that. He couldn't even bear glancing at it. "The wound very thin but deep. It is Aklasava."

"Janelle killed this man?" Kate frowned. "Is it a Demon or just human?"

Questilsa turned the corpse over so his back was towards her. She drew his collar down and studied the back of his back. "There is no Demon mark here. He is a human."

"Demon mark?" Jason asked. Questiksa ignored him as usual and shone her torch around.

"Every Demon had a black star mark at the back of its neck," Kate explained. "It is like a birthmark, and we all call it the Demon Mark," she stopped and looked at Questilsa. "Questilsa, are we going to look for Janelle or are you going to study this floor forever? Because I hear some noises…"

There was a guttery scream, clearly tore from the throat of a girl they all knew.

"Janelle!" Jason bolted towards the scream immediately, ready to kill whatever that was hurting his baby sister.

He followed her terrified screams as quickly as he could. He remembered telling her that he would trace her voice back to her, when they were outside the door.

Gods, he didn't mean this way.

When he saw her, he didn't stop running.

Something was lit on fire beside them—no doubt Janelle, so she could see clearer.

He could see Janelle on the floor, Aklasava in her left hand and another a small dagger in her right hand and she was slashing the small dagger at the creature atop her. Why didn't she use Aklasava? She could kill it at one strike!

Then he saw the creature.

A Unicorn.

So of course. She couldn't kill it. She had to wait until Jason came and cut off its horn.

She caught sight of Jason immediately. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could do so, she fell limp.

Anger rose in Jason's chest. He leapt at the Unicorn, his sword raised. But the Unicorn just slammed back at him and he crashed onto the ground.

Arms yanked him up. He twisted back and saw Kate, her face nothing but fear.

Questilsa had launched herself on the Unicorn already, holding onto its horn so not to be thrown off accidentally. Kate grabbed a knife from nowhere and threw it at the Unicorn. The blade buried into its side and it jumped, this time really _accidentally_ throwing Questilsa on the ground. She landed right beside Janelle, her eyes glazed over. It would take her time before she could get up again. And as for Janelle, she was still motionless. Jason noticed a pool of blood spreading below her legs.

Jason raised his sword but Kate stopped him. "Wait."

Then she sang.

Ok now 1) he wanted to slap her. Then he realized she was singing magic.

He saw the clear blue sky, far far above, felt fresh air, the golden sunlight and silver moonbeam, the bright green grass, cold current swirling around them. She heard birds singing, cats purring, children laughing.

And most of all, he didn't want to kill the Unicorn anymore. Just leave it. He just wanted to lie down, close his eyes, and rested.

And then 2) Kate slapped his face.

He blinked and shook out of his dream. Kate was still singing, but she was jabbing her finger at the Unicorn.

Jason pinched himself and all the sleepiness slipped away from him.

He turned at the Unicorn. It was rocking back and forth, its eyelids drooping. He raised his sword and slashed.

The Unicorn howled and ran around. Its now hornless head slammed into Jason and he flew back until he hit the wall and landed right beside Janelle.

Janelle.

He crawled beside her and down to her legs. He could see that the left leg of her pants was torn below her knee and blood was bubbling out from there and rolling onto the ground.

"Janelle," he whispered. Questilsa was beside them already, her hands tearing at the fabric of her pants and started taking care of the wound.

Jason rest Janelle's had on his lap. Her face was glistering with sweat. Her eyes were firmly shut, as if she dared not to open them and faced the horrible life ahead of her.

But the worst thing was that she was completely white. Her skin was always flushed, but not it was so pale that she looked like death. Her lips were blue. Jason touched her cheek with shaking hands and found it cold like ice, which was so cold that it seemed to freeze his heart and made the world darkened.

Jason didn't know how to feel pulse or stuff, so he simply touched her chest. His heart sank. "Her heart wasn't beating."

Questilsa grabbed Janelle's wrist, clearly taking her pulse. Then she yelled out. "Katherine, find the Unicorn's horn. Now!"

"Can you feel her pulse?" Jason quickly asked.

"Yes," Questilsa nodded. Then she said quietly. "Around nine heartbeats a minute."

"Nine heartbeat a minute? How… how's that possible?"

"It is happening," Questilsa pushed up her own sleeve.

"Can she survive it?"

"No."

Jason felt as if his heart dropped into an endless pit, a hallow feeling at his chest that he had never felt before. "Then… what can we do?"

"We are going to save her."

Questilsa had a little dagger out now. She turned to Kate, who had returned with the horn. "Heal her calf."

Kate nodded and set to work.

Questilsa turned to Jason. "And you. Hold her hands. Both of her hands."

"Why?"

"One more moment delay, and the less likely I can save her."

Jason clutched Janelle's hands immediately.

"Good," Questilsa raised the dagger and cut opened her own wrist.

"What are you doing?" Jason squeaked.

Questilsa didn't reply. She raised her wrist over Janelle's lips and let the blood dripped down to her mouth. Janelle didn't make any reaction.

"What's that for?" Jason asked again.

Surprisingly, she answered him this time. "She lost too much blood. I am giving her some of mine."

"But… by drinking? That won't work! She's not a vampire! And your blood type… she is a type O, what…"

"Jason," she snapped. "I aren't human, Janelle isn't human, and you aren't human."

"Oh," he squealed softly. "Oh."

"And you holding her hands… you are both Power Nemisises and Power Nemisises are always stronger when together. She is now actually drinking in your power."

"I see… but, she didn't lose that much blood, did she? The puddle of blood under her…"

"No. The Unicorn drank her blood. The blood you saw… the wound simply continued to bleed after the Unicorn let her go. And it was only a small fraction of it."

"Oh, poor, poor Janelle," Jason stroke her hair and looked up. Then he scowled. "Questilsa… you look pale."

"I aren't, dumbass."

"Yes you are."

"I aren't, and shut up."

"Yes you are," Kate perked in. "Almost as pale as Janelle."

Questilsa closed her mouth. Her face was indeed very pale now. Though not as pale as Janelle, but still pale.

"You are losing blood as well, Questilsa," Kate was concerned now. "You have to stop. You are killing yourself!"

"She still is in danger until she wakes. I have to…"

Jason grabbed Questilsa's bleeding wrist, who turned back at him in surprise. He shoved her wrist at Kate. "Take care of her wound, Kate. I will help Janelle."

He took Questilsa's knife, which was dropped on the ground, and raised it. He rested the edge at his wrist, where the blue veins pulse. He took a deep breath and slashed.

It wasn't as painful as he expected. Just a stinging kiss at his wrist, a stab of numb pain, and blood was pouring down already.

He immediately placed it over Janelle's lips and let the dark red liquid dripped into her mouth. Though her face was still ghastly white, her lips were bright red now, covered with Questilsa's and his blood. She really looked like a vampire now. He expected her to snap open her eyes that had turned red and fangs would shoot from her lips.

He dropped the dagger beside her and held her hand tightly, imagining seeping his strength, his soul into her through their connected hands. Please, be fine, Janelle. Open your eyes. Open, open, open, OPEN!

Janelle drew in a sudden gasp.

Kate and Questilsa gathered around Janelle, studying her with wide eyes.

Janelle's beautiful blue eyes fluttered open and she raised them at Jason. Then she groaned in her precious and bell-ringing voice.

"Why am I always the one who got hurt?"

Jason stared at her, then pulled her up and crushed her with a bear hug, forgetting all about his wrist. He felt Janelle's weak arms going around him as well as he cried like a little boy into her hair.

After Kate took care of Jason's wrist, they turned back to the Unicorn, which still lay limp on the ground.

"It should be awake by now," Janelle frowned. She still felt as if she was a newborn baby with no strength at all. "Jet recovered much faster than it."

"This poor thing had been trapped here for many years already," Questilsa rubbed Janelle's calf. For some reason, this Unicorn's blood only stopped the bleeding, but not closed the wound, so it was still a throbbing pain. "Some people had trapped it inside this pyramid, though I had no idea who. It weakened it and that is why he bit you and drank your blood once it saw you. I have no idea how did it manage to live without blood in this cold place…"

"No. Someone had been kidnapping people here to feed the Unicorn," Janelle suddenly remembered Steven Compton. She had forgotten about it completely. She wanted to slap herself, though she knew she couldn't blame herself, as she was just brought back from the dead.

"So?" Questilsa studied her.

"A boy called Steven Compton," she rose to her feet immediately, but both her leg and head weren't ready and dizziness hit her so abructly that she would have collapsed if Jason didn't catch her. The look from Questilsa told her that she should stay down until her wound healed. "I… I killed his father. We talked for a few moments before the Unicorn found us. He escaped into the passage," she pointed. "But…. I heard him scream. He…"

Questilsa bolted off. Kate followed.

Jason let Janelle wrapped an arm around his shoulder and holding her close by the waist, just like that she did to Steven minutes ago. Jason was almost supporting her full weight as her legs were still jelly.

As they walked, Jason said. "We found a corpse by the door when we walked in. Is that the Steven Compton's father?"

She nodded solemnly. "Yes. He dragged me behind the door and I was so terrified that I killed him."

"Then the Steven Compton…"

"Janelle!" they heard Kate's yell. "Over here!"

The two hurried forward. Janelle held out a hand and extended her fingers. There was a tiny pang of pain, like a tingle. Then fire sprouted up from above her palm, but not touching it. The flames danced around until it was a ball of yellow fire.

"Whoa, cool," Jason's eyes widened. "Careful, coz', you know, I don't exactly appreciate being set on fire."

Janelle ignored him and raised her hand. The fire ball rose also, like a flaming torch. She saw others and she hurried to them, ignoring the searing pain at her shin.

She saw Kate soon, who ignored the yellow ball near her completely. She grabbed Janelle's other hand and pulled her down until they were both kneeling beside Steven Compton.

He was dead.

Janelle bit her lip. There was a small hole at stomach. The Unicorn must have driven its horn inside him when it saw him. And if she called him to remain at her side, he might still be alive. She should have protected him, but not sending him away…

"I don't care what you are thinking," Questilsa turned to Janelle, her gray eyes stern. "But don't you dare to blame yourself. I do not allow it. You hear me? Do not even think of it."

"How? How can I not even blame myself for it?" Janelle whispered.

"Do you remember when I said sending people out to fight for you is much more difficult than fighting yourself?" Questilsa suddenly grabbed Janelle's hand. Her hand was small but callused and icy cold. "And when the moment came—I mean the time when you truly become a Power Nemisis and lead human against the Power One—you need to send people to fight and when they die fighting, you still cannot blame yourself. You hear me? And you, Janelle Lambert, will start by stop blaming yourself with stupid things like this," she let go of Janelle's hand and swept an arm towards Steven's dead form. She had never been this passionate before. "You try to save him. That is what matters."

Janelle stared at Questilsa shakily, and then down at Steven. There was blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. His expression was peaceful, as if sleeping.

She wished he was sleeping.

Questilsa took her arms and pulled her up with her. "Janelle, you cannot develop feelings for a person you barely known. You are a Power Nemisis. People all around you will die, like my loved ones. I cannot ask you to be as cold hearted as me, but sometimes, you need to shut down your emotions. Compartmentalize your feelings and pity and love. It is hard, but that is the way you can survive. It is the only way."

Janelle nodded and knelt down beside Steven. She turned to Questilsa, forcing her voice not to crack. "Is he already dead when you arrived?"

"Yeah," Questilsa nodded. "His eyes were opened when I arrived. Those beautiful green eyes of his. I almost couldn't bear myself to close it."

Janelle glanced at Questilsa, not believing she had said something like that. Then she told the others every word that she and Steven Compton exchanged.

"He is kidnapped?" Questilsa turned to Steven after Janelle finished. "Then… that means someone knows that the Unicorn was here, and it is possible that it was the kidnappers that trapped it in here."

"And yet they kept it alive," Kate added. "By throwing food inside the pyramid."

"Food," Jason pulled a straight face. "Juicy food, isn't it?"

Everybody ignored him. "The Unicorn may know what was going on. If someone is helping the Unicorn, we should find them out."

Janelle opened her mouth to speak, but a wave of dizziness hit her with so much force that she almost blacked out.

When her sight cleared, Questilsa said. "You are still weak and it drained too much of your strength when you told us of Steven. Take some rest before you died of tiredness. Though I dislike you, I still don't like people dying all around me. It's annoying, you know. It is always me who need to clean up the mess they left behind."

"I am not resting until we got out of here," she said indignantly. "Jason, check on the Unicorn?"

She braced her hand against the ground when another wave of dizziness hit her.

"Just do not talk unless necessary," Questilsa ordered and turned to Jason. "And, yes, Jason. Do as she said."

"It is gone," Kate spoke up.

The others three turned and looked at her.

"I can feel it. It is gone. At least, not the same spot it was at. It must…"

Jason gave a muffled scream suddenly. All eyes went to him.

"Well?" Questilsa broke the ice.

"Can't… can't you hear that?" he whirled around and turned back to them, his eyes wide with absolute fear.

"Hear what?" Kate scowled.

"That voice?" Jason was trembling now. It was the first time Janelle ever saw him tremble in front of anyone but her.

She ignored her leg's protest and Questilsa's glare. She stood up, hobbled to Jason and hugged his arm with hers arms. "What did you hear?"

"A voice," he whispered. "A strange voice. It was very loud, so loud that I thought it busted my brain."

"Not your ears?" Questilsa asked.

"I…" his voice faltered. "I don't know."

"Ah," leaning heavily on Jason, Janelle called out into the darkness. "Come here, Unicorn, we won't hurt you."

First it was silence. Then the sound of hooves clapping against the ground.

A Unicorn stood there. Its mane was ink black, making the blood on its forehead startling silver.

"What's your name?" she smiled at it.

"Zac," it was Jason who answered. "It said its name was Zac."

Beside Janelle, Questilsa went rigid. Janelle wondered why. A few moments later, she understood.

Zac. Zack. Zackline.

She touched Questilsa's shoulder, but the Witch didn't look at her.

Jason stared at Zac for a few more moments, his mouth slightly opened with something between fear and surprise and awe. Then he turned to the others. "Can you hear that?"

"No. Only you can, dumbass, the way I can listen to Jet."

Zac made some weird sound. Janelle took a wild guess as a chuckle. It proved her right when Jason glared at it with an obvious _shut up._

"Zac said it was a group of Dwarves that brought him here a few years ago," he stopped, his head turned to Zac with his brows scowled. "Okay, he wasn't sure if it was a few years or not. He never cares about time. But they throws human inside once a month to keep him well-supplied with food/blood."

"Who are those Dwarves?" Questilsa asked.

Jason listened for a moment. "Bloodsucker said that he didn't know…" Zac stepped onto Jason's boot. "Ouch!"

"I like you, Zac. Next time, bite off some of his hair. He won't like it," Janelle told Zac with appreciation, who looked back at her with something like a grin on his face.

"Good. You've got a friend against me now," Jason groaned.

Janelle grinned but then turned serious. "Zac, we need to find the Sword. Jason's sword. Do you know where is it?"

"He did," Jason translated. "Get on my back."

Everyone stared at him with a grin on her face.

"I mean," he corrected. "Get on Zac's back."

Zac neighed.

"Oh…" Jason frowned. "He said he was still weak from years of imprisonment in here. He could only carry three people."

"I'll stay," Janelle volunteered immediately.

"But…"

"With this stupid leg, I am totally useless. The piece of trash will stay behind. Zac, there is no danger in here, right?"

Zac nodded.

"See? Go, you guys," she shooed them away.

They scowled but reluctantly climbed on Zac's back. They rode away, leaving Janelle with her ball of fire and Steven Compton's corpse.

"The last time I left Janelle, she almost died," Jason protested as he rode.

 _Well, it is me who try to kill her, but as I won't kill her now, you can relax._

"You bloodsucker," he groaned and almost screamed when Zac came to a sudden stop.

Zac chuckled and announced, _here we are! The Sword of Jason's Boiyafinam._

"Weird name," he frowned and slid off Zac. The others followed his lead.

They stopped in front of a huge stone door. Jason turned to Zac. "What is inside?"

 _No idea. I just knew it was inside._

Questilsa found the handle of the door and pulled. It didn't move.

"Let me try," Jason grabbed the handle from her and pulled as hard as he could.

He kept forgetting about his new found strength. He jerked so hard that the handle fell right off, but at least the door moved and left enough space for them to slip in.

Questilsa walked in first. Jason followed. A few feet behind the door strings dangled from the low doorway and touched the ground, forming a curtain of stained dark strings. Questilsa carefully pushed the strings aside and peeked inside.

"Oh, gods," she gasped and stepped inside. Jason followed and stared.

The first thing that caught his eyes were shining light.

All around the ground were hills of jewelleries. They were everywhere. Gold, silver, diamonds, crystals, beads, gems, emerald… everywhere.

"Gods, we are gonna be rich," he muttered.

"Don't touch any of them," Questilsa warned. "They might be cursed."

"I don't…"

"Just don't touch any."

"Guys," Kate called out.

Jason and Questilsa turned at her. She had her knife drawn, but instead of using it to fight, she was using it to wipe the jewelleries off something like a table.

"Your blade might be curse, Katherine," Questilsa told her.

"Good. I am going to leave it here. This stupid thing is unbalanced."

The other two approached her and Jason realized it wasn't a table.

It was a coffin.

Questilsa pulled on gloves and pulled the coffin out from under the jewelleries hills. Everyone stared at it.

It was golden, with pictures crafted onto it. Diamonds and pearls were inlayed into the surface, gleaming palely.

It would be the moment when Jason noticed that the room was filled of light. He was so awed with all those jewelleries that he didn't even notice the Light of Obvious shining around.

He glanced around and saw a window with bright light shining in. They were almost at the surface of the pyramid.

"The lid… there is no knob or hinge or anything holding it," Kate pointed with a trembling finger.

"It is a string that was holding the lid with the coffin," Questilsa noted.

Questilsa reached and trailed the silver string with a gloved finger. The string was very thin, so thin that Jason almost neglected it. But it was also very long, swirling all around the coffin. He saw something like a tube connected at the end of the string. On the tube was words that he didn't understand.

"Tilsa?" the word left his mouth before he knew it. Instantly, he received a blow at the back of his head.

Questilsa knelt down beside him and studied the tube. "to the Sorceress who lead the Bane of Power."

"That means…"

"Me," Questilsa frowned and touched the tube. When it didn't move when Jason touched it, it snapped around Questilsa's bare wrist instantly.

"What the hell?" Questilsa yelled and jerked her wrist back.

The string moved. It shrank towards the tube until the entire string was folded inside the tube around Questilsa's wrist.

Everyone stared at the whip. Questilsa flicked her wrist, and the string shot and slashed out, cutting the gold bar by her feet into two.

"It is not a string. It is a whip," Kate whispered. "A whip made for you, Questilsa!"

Instead of answering, Questilsa reached out and shoved the lid off the coffin.

"So only I can open the door and only you can open the lid. Great working with you, Witch," Jason turned away from her and peeked inside. "Uh."

Inside the coffin was a person wrapped up in yellowish white cloth like bandages that was stained dark with time, but the outline of a person was clear.

"A mummy," Kate made some whimpering sound. "I never thought I would see one with my own eyes."

Jason reached down. He had no idea where did that courage came from, but his eyes were on the sword, which was under the mummy's crossed arms.

He touched it and his hand jerked back. The power from the sword sapped at him so much that his fingertip stung. He remembered when Janelle touched her Sword for the first time.

Then he grabbed it and yanked it out of the mummy's grasp.

And the ground opened and swallowed them.

Jason fell and for a moment his life flashed in front of him. He saw a little Janelle running in her pink dress, her hair flying behind her. He saw the house 13, he saw Questilsa with her fierce gray eyes.

And stopped.

He looked up and realized why. Kate had a hand grabbing the back of his shirt and grabbing Questilsa's hand with the other. Questilsa was at the top, her free hand holding something…

"Are all three of you down there?" he heard Janelle's strained voice.

Janelle. His little sister. He almost sobbed.

"Grab the whip… tie it somewhere…" he heard Questilsa's tight voice. "Help me… grab the edge of the floor."

"I think I am about to let go," Kate squeaked.

Jason grabbed hold of her ankle with one hand and clutched his Sword with the other. "Then let go of me and grabbed onto Questilsa with both of your hands, bitch!"

Kate didn't protested. She grabbed Questilsa's ankles like Jason did so Questilsa could hold them up with both of her hands.

He shuddered when he realized Questilsa was bearing three people's weight. If she let go, all three of them are going to die.

He knew he shouldn't blame her if he really let go, but still, he would blame her.

Why was him thinking these?

He shook his head and tightened his grip on Kate's ankles. And when he looked up, he realized the floor was closing up above them. If it really closed, Questilsa would be forced to let go, and…

"Done!" Janelle's cry.

"Hold on tight, guys," Questilsa called down. Then they shot up like rocket.

He felt his arms brushing both edges of the closing floor as he sailed up. When he fell back and hit the floor, it was already closed.

All three of them sat on the floor, panting. Janelle was standing near, her eyes wide.

"How…" Kate whispered.

"I tied Questilsa's string around that thing," she pointed at the bars of the window. "And then I don't know what happened."

"I knew neither me nor Janelle was strong enough to pull all of us up, so I made the whip shot back into the handle," Questilsa explained. "And as it was tied to the bar, it pulled us up."

"Whoa," Jason collapsed. "Whoa."

"How did you come here?" Kate turned to Janelle.

"Zac came back for me after you guys went in here," she explained. "And just found you guys falling. I managed to seize Questilsa's wrist before all of you die."

Jason closed his eyes. He was that close to death.

"Jason… did you drop the sword?"

"No," he held it out. Then he grabbed the hilt and unsheathed it.

Instantly, golden light filled the room. It was nothing like Aklasava. It glowed pure gold, and instead of silvery light and white mist, it was fierce and bright, as if an aura of lava flames licked around it. Just as Janelle explained, he felt power surging through him, the hilt warm and cold at the same time, the wood sheath rough and smooth at the same time. He saw the letter _j_ on the hilt. His initial, the same as Janelle's. he could also see the word _Boiyafinam_ on it.

He saw Janelle raising an eyebrow. "Wow."

Jason found his eyes on Questilsa.

She was beaming.


	8. Part 1 Ending

Questilsa didn't bring Janelle, Jason and Kate back to the Sanctuary of Chaos.

Instead, she brought them back to the Lamberts' homes.

"Everything is a mess when you left this place the first time with Zackline," Questilsa's voice still cracked when she spoke her dead friend's name, but it was much better than before now. "That's why she didn't let you tell your parents. But now everything's settle down, so you can talk to your parents."

Janelle couldn't help being a little nervous when she rang the doorbell—neither she nor Jason had brought the key with them when they left. She had never been nervous on her house porch before. She never felt nervous when she entered her house, except for the time when she was seven. She came home after pushing another girl at school and her parents knew about it. She had stepped into her house with her heart pounding, knowing her parents were going to scold her, or even sent her to bed without dinner. Nine-year-old Jason was grinning smugly beside her at that time. Janelle still remembered well, Jason with his innocent face and dark hair so short that is almost seemed to be shaved.

So many had changed.

When their mother opened the door, she first screamed a whole bunch of trash that combined words that she had told her children never to use them. Then she crushed both of them with a giant hug, which was pretty impossible for a fragile woman like her.

Speaking of fragile, Janelle realized how thin her mother now was. She must have lost quite a lot of weight when her children were gone.

"Hey, Mom," she whispered into her mother's ear. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Kate and Questilsa slipping to the back of the house.

Mom and Dad both freaked out when they saw a creepy girl at their house (for example, a ten-year-old girl with short brown hair and stormy gray eyes), but they both relaxed when they realized it was the Girl of Creep who saved their kids' lives. Questilsa looked quite surprised when they patted her back and she quickly shied away.

Nothing attacked them for the following week, surprisingly. Nobody mentioned that, because everyone kept imagining the moment the words left their lip, a monster will popped out in front of them and ate them for afternoon tea.

It would a Wednesday dawn, when everybody in the house was wakened by a piercing, despaired scream.


End file.
